By IANS
Jaipur : The flood situation is fast improving in Rajasthan as water discharge from the Jaswant Sagar dam in Jodhpur district has reduced considerably in the last 24 hours.
A portion of the 118-year-old dam in Jodhpur district, about 300 km from here, breached Friday night after being fed by swollen rivers, transforming a part of the desert into a lake.
"Things are much better now. Water being discharged from the dam is very little now and since Sunday evening we have been able to reach almost all the villages surrounded by water," N.P. Gangwar, the Jodhpur district collector, told IANS.
Over 6,000 people who have been surrounded by water for the last four days in the villages of Bala and Holpura near Bilara town, over 275 km from here, are hopeful of getting help from the administration today as the water level has receded.
"We dropped food packets Sunday but as the water level has receded now, we are sending a team of officials to the villages to provide proper relief," said Gangwar.
"For four days it was really a bad scene for us as we were surrounded by water. No one from the administration reached us. We had no medical facilities and had to survive on our own," said Kalu Singh, a resident of Bala village.
Meanwhile, repair work of the Jaipur-Jodhpur highway near Bilara town has started and traffic may resume soon.
Pali, Sirohi and other nearby areas have also received heavy rainfall in the last few days. Life was thrown out of gear in Pali district, which received 357 mm rain during the last fortnight – the highest in 24 years. So far, at least 22 have people died in rain-related incidents in Rajasthan.