141 villages affected by flood in Balasore

Bhubaneswar: The water level in Subarnarekha river receded, though several villages in Balasore district remained inundated in the flood waters.

According to the Water Resources department, the water level of Subarnarekha at Rajghat was 9.63 metres against the danger level of 10.36 metres.

Though the water level was at 10.80 metres on Thursday, the water level fell on Friday.

A total of 141 villages were affected by the recent flood caused due to the deep depression-induced rainfall last week.Around 21,085 people from five blocks of Balasore district were evacuated to safety and the affected people were still in 51 relief camps for the last three days, a report issued by the Special Relief Commissioner’s (SRC) office said, adding that 130 houses have been damaged in the calamity.

Meanwhile, Odisha’s Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari said that this year as many as 20 districts have been affected by flood in two phases.

“There was no loss of life, but crops, agricultural lands and houses have been damaged in different districts and authorities have been asked to submit a damage assessment report within seven days,” he said.

In the first phase, southern Odisha districts Malkangiri and Koraput witnessed flood that damaged cultivated lands.

The damage caused in Malkangiri district was more, while in the second phase, Sundargarh, Mayurbhanj, Balasore and Bhadrak to some extent were affected due to flood, the minister said. In the second phase, Balasore district was worst affected, the minister added.