Golaghat Inundated By Heavy Flood

After excessive water was released by NEEPCO dam last week, a vast area of Golaghat district inundated by heavy flood which killed three people and caused damage worth crores of rupees.

People are emptying household goods from their houses amid flood water at Kathkotia village, Golaghat.

By Mithu Das August 5, 2018

“I haven’t seen such devastating flood before,” said Asiq Haque, 16, with whom I met at Kathkotia village where I’d gone to visit the flood-hit area (on 2nd August, 2018). We were Standing knee-deep on the flood water which was fast flowing over the road in the middle of the village. Everything was under water—the houses, the rice paddy fields, the vegetable gardens, pastures, the roads and footbridges. Even the Dhansiri river—which flows near the village—disappeared into the horizon after it had mixed itself with muddy water.

“This is not the first time the Dhansiri has in full flood,” I told Asiq. “We saw heavy flood in the mid-nineteen-eighties, but that was not man-made, unlike this one. This flood is a result of NEEPCO’s decision to release excessive water from Doyang Hydroelectric Project dam.”

According to various news reports, Doyang Hydroelectric Project dam, which is situated in the hills of Wokha district in Nagaland, had opened their sluice gates last weekend (between 28th and 31st July, 2018). But as soon as the excessive water was released, it had directly struck dozens of villages on the banks of the Doyang river. The following day, the whole scenario of a vast land, which is spreaded over hundreds of kilometres on the banks of the Dhansiri river had completely changed. Hundreds of villages were submerged under water; thousands of people were forced to leave their houses; acres and acres of paddy fields were destroyed; cattle and farm animals were either died or swept away. In many places the flood water flowed over the roads, destroying footbridges and leaving people stranded for hours. Within two days, three people were killed by this devastating flood.

Golaghat town was not directly affected by the flood, though it is situated near the river. However, some of its adjoining places were affected—Moinapara, Halmira and Kathkotia were among them.

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What NEEPCO says

In a statement issued by NEEPCO on 6th August 2018, which was published by several newspapers in Assam, NEEPCO said that due to the rains in the hills, which had continued for several days, the water level was rapidly increasing in Doyang Hydroelectric Project dam. However, District Administrator and District Disaster Management Authority of Golaghat were regularly being informed about the increasing water level. Unfortunately, by 25th July 2018, the water level in the dam reached 325 metres against its capacity of 324 metres. On the same day, said NEEPCO, government officials of Wokha and Golaghat district were informed about their plan to release the excessive water from the dam. And, on 27th July, at 5:30pm, the sluice gate of the dam was finally released. By 31st July, however, the water released from the dam picked up a speed of 1150 cubic metre per second, which, according to NEEPCO, was abnormally higher than previously recorded.