The flood situation in Orissa continued to remain grim on Monday with more number of breaches being reported from coastal Orissa districts. At least three helicopters, two from the Indian Navy and the third one provided by the Union government, were pressed into flood service. At least 15 quintals of dry food items were air-dropped in the marooned areas of Puri, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur district.
According to special relief commissioner P.K. Mohapatra, at least 97,117 people were evacuated from low-lying areas to safer places and given dry food. As water levels in Mahanadi, Chitrotpala, Kathajuri, Luna, Karandi and Birupa, Paika, Kuakhia, Daya, Bhargavi, Kushabhara and Dhanua showed receding, the state administration stepped up the post-reparation work by sending medical teams to the affected pockets.
Chief secretary Bijoy Kumar Patnaik, who reviewed the flood situation and relief operation work at the state secretariat, said the administration had focused on sanitation activities in the areas where flood water had receded.
“Since post-flood period witnesses outbreak of various diseases like cholera and diarrhoea, we are focusing on carrying out massive sanitation work. Medical teams have already been sent to areas like Sonepur town, Banki, Binika and Sambalpur to provide immediate healthcare to affected. Besides skilled and trained personnel have been sent to those areas for chlorination of drinking water resources,” he said. At least 17 lakh people in 19 districts have been severely hit in the flood.
Three more people were swept away in the flood on Monday. With reports of three more deaths coming from Sambalpur, Puri and Kendrapara districts, the death toll during the current high flood rose to 19. Nearly a dozen people are still missing.
Communication between Sambalpur-Cuttack, Sonepur-Cuttack, Sonepur-Boudh and Bhubaneswar-Konark still remains disrupted as over five-feet flood water was flowing over major roads.
Thousands acres of standing paddy crop has been damaged in the flood.
Meanwhile, state water resources secretary Suresh Mohapatra said the flood situation was likely to improve by the evening.