Flood alert in North Bihar after huge water discharge from Nepal

The Bihar water resources department sounded an alert for floods along swollen Kosi and Gandak rivers, following sudden and heavy discharge of water from Birpur and Valmikinagar barrages on Monday morning.

Birpur barrage in Supal on Kosi witnessed release of around 4.62 lakh cusec water at 2am, which was the highest since the flood level of 1989, said engineer in chief, floods, Shailendra, adding that there was no immediate threat of flooding due to heavy discharge as water was within course of the river. “The sudden surge in discharge was attributed to local rains in Nepal in the downstream of Barah Kshetra and now it’s falling. The discharge has come down to 2.90 lakh cusec at 2pm at Birpur,” said the engineer in chief.

The Valmikinagar barrage on Gandak river in West Champaran saw release of around 3.3 lakh cusec around 8am. In 2022, the embankment on Gandak was washed away in Gopalganj and water had overtopped certain points in West Champaran, when there was a sudden discharge of 4.45 lakh cusec in the river from barrage. “The situation is not that alarming this time around Gandak river,” said Shailendra, adding that all safety embankments of the department were safe and rivers were flowing within their beds as of now.

The engineer said that north Bihar rivers might have jumped the red marks at a few stretches, but there was no immediate threat of flooding as Ganga was still in a position to absorb huge quantum of water. “Currently, Ganga is flowing over the danger level only at Kahalgaon, where it’s maintaining the falling trend,” said Shailendra.

Flood bulletin of the department said that Bagmati river has jumped the danger mark at Dheng (by 1cm), Sonakhan, Sitamarhi, (60cm), Dubbadhar, Sheohar, (32cm), Kansar, Sitamarhi, (16cm), Kataunjha and Benibad in Muzaffarpur by 135cm and 112cm. This has led to submergence of villages within the embankments and low-lying unprotected areas. Lal Bakeya was also flowing above the DL at Gowabari in East Champaran by 25cm. Kosi was flowing above the red mark at Baltara in Khagaria and Kursela in Katihar by around 35-55cm.