KOLKATA: The release of water from DVC’s Panchet and Maithan reservoirs has created flood-like situation in at least three districts in West Bengal – Howrah, Hooghly and East Burdwan. The process of evacuating the residents of low-lying areas of Howrah, Hooghly and East Burdwan to safer places has begun.The DVC reservoirs have reached full capacity due to continuous heavy rain in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh, Dhanbad, Bokaro and the upper Damodar catchment areas. With no other options left, DVC has started releasing water from its two reservoirs in West Bengal through the Damodar River towards Howrah, Hooghly and East Burdwan districts. As a result, the areas in the lower catchment of Damodar in West Bengal are under threat of flooding.According to sources, DVC started releasing 45,000 cusecs of water from Tuesday morning. Of this, about 36,000 cusecs of water is being released from Panchet and about 9,000 cusecs of water from Maithan.Areas like Khanakul, Arambagh in Hooghly and Amta, Udaynarayanpur in Howrah are already being flooded. The West Bengal irrigation department has asked the residents of the concerned areas to be alert. Executive engineers of the Irrigation Department said that if the water pressure in Durgapur Barrage increases, the amount of water released from there may also increase. As a result, the situation is feared to become more complicated.
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