65 evacuated from flood-hit Marathwada

MUMBAI: After four years of consecutive drought and its worst-ever water shortage last year, Marathwada is now reeling from floods caused by heavy rainfall. It has

MUMBAI: After four years of consecutive drought and its worst-ever water shortage last year, Marathwada is now reeling from floods caused by heavy rainfall. It has received 140.3% more rain than its average annual rainfall so far. From June to September, Jalna, Beed, Latur, Osmanabad, Nanded and Parbhani all recorded rainfall in excess of 100%.

HT Image

Almost all major and medium dams including Manjara, Ujani and Terna are overflowing for the first time since 2010.

On Sunday, 65 stranded people were evacuated from Latur and Nanded.

Heavy rains threw traffic out of gear on the Aurangabad-Solapur national highway. A swollen Terna river near Ujjani village in Latur cut off all links to the village and its nearby areas.

The heavy rains also led to foggy conditions in parts of Osmanabad.

An alert has been issued in all eight districts as the monsoon has resulted in the overflow of rivers. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecasted heavy rainfall in the region over the next few days.

The actual rainfall received by the region from June 1 to September 30 is 556.1mm, according to data released by the Rainfall Recording and Analysis Wing of the State Agriculture Department.

Umakant Dangat, Aurangabad divisional commissioner, said those who were stranded have been rescued, however, warnings have been issued to the villages — particularly those situated at the banks of rivers — asking them to take necessary precautions.

“Till Saturday, all four rivers, Manjara, Sindhthana, Terna and Sindhusara were overflowing. Today, water levels of all except Manjara have receeded. There is still heavy rainfall in Manjara’s catchment areas,” Dangat told HT.

“The situation is under control but we are still worried as the water level of Manjara is still rising. This will again affect many villages of the district,” Suresh Kakani Nanded collector said.

In Nanded, 25 people were rescued till Sunday evening. The rescue operation was carried out with the help of a National Disaster Relief Force team and a local search and rescue team, said Kakani.

A flood-like situation became imminent in the district after water from two dams — Upper Maniyad (1.25 lakh cusec) and Lower Maniyad (70,000 cusec) — were released against the backdrop of heavy rainfall, the officials said.

Pandurang Pol, Latur district collector, said they have rescued 40 people from various locations.

The average annual rainfall for Aurangabad from June to September is 721.2 mm.

However, this year, the rainfall has been 780.4 mm, 108.2% of the average received during the same period.

Latur, which had received drinking water by railway wagons between April and May has recorded a rainfall of 949.6 mm against the average rainfall of 725.3 mm during the same period.

On Sunday morning, Latur recorded rainfall of 73.9 mm.