Major rivers receding, but at a slower pace

PRAYAGRAJ : Water level of Ganga and Yamuna continued to recede on Saturday for the fourth straight day but widespread rains in the region for the past 48 hours has slowed the pace of decline.

According to reports of flood monitoring cell, Prayagraj the level of Ganga at 4pm in Phaphamau was measured at 82.62 metres while that of Yamuna in Naini was 82.46 metres.

Reports revealed that rate of receding of Ganga on Saturday morning was measured at 3 cm per hour while that of Yamuna was 2 cm per hour.

However at 4pm, the rate of decline of both the rivers dropped to 0.5 cm per hour.

As per executive engineer of irrigation department (flood division), Prayagraj Brijesh Kumar, widespread rains in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh had started showing its impact on the pace of receding of both the rivers.

“The low lying localities are expected to be free of flood water by the end of this week. But with heavy rainfall received in the region in the past over 48 hours, rate of receding had declined due to which people are still forced to stay in flood relief camps for some more days,” he said.

As per the official, as the rate of receding had dropped drastically on Saturday evening, level of both the rivers could also become stable for sometime in the next 24 hours as water was being released on a continuous basis from different dams in UP as well as Madhya Pradesh, he added.

On Saturday morning, around 1 lakh cusec water was released from Bariyarpur dam in Madhya Pradesh, Kumar said.