Fishing nets along the Brahmaputra near Uzan Bazar fish market. Picture by Eastern Projections

June 27: With the Brahmaputra crossing the danger mark, the water resource department has closed the main sluice gate on the Bharalu. As a result, the river has overflown and inundated several very low lying areas.

Officials said the Brahmaputra is flowing 67 cm above the level of the Bharalu and if the sluice gate is kept open, the Brahmaputra would reverse into the Bharalu, flooding the entire city. Once the water level of the Brahmaputra recedes, the sluice gate will be opened.

Probir Talukdar, an engineer engaged in the sluice gate duty, said there was no cause for panic as yet. “We will start operating four highly powerful pumps to drain the Bharalu water if there is a heavy rain in the city. These pumps can flush out 6,000 litres of water per minute.”

Talukdar said the both the water resource department and Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) have written to the Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB) to provide uninterrupted power supply to the sluice gate office at Shantipur.

Six people in three shifts have been assigned round-the-clock to maintain a close vigil of the water levels of the Brahmaputra and Bharalu.

Though officials claimed that the four pumps can clear rain water from the city within two hours, several areas remained waterlogged because of clogged drains.

Moreover, heavy siltation on Bharalu has also disrupted the flow of water to the Brahmaputra. The dredging of the Bharalu, Mora Bharalu and Bahini rivers had been taken up before the onset of the monsoons. These rivers together form a natural drainage system in the city, But the dredging has done little good.

A recent survey found that silt and garbage had once again accumulated in the stretches that had earlier been cleared. The state water resource department and the GMC had initiated the Rs 3.46 crore joint comprehensive de-siltation project in February with an aim to check artificial floods.

The project was scheduled to be completed before the monsoons set in. But unprecedented rainfall from the last week of March to the third week of April has hampered progress in cleaning up the Bharalu, Morabharalu and Bahini.

According to plans, silt and garbage were to be manually and mechanically cleared in the 4.5 km stretch of the Bahini from Roopnagar to R.G. Baruah culvert, the 3.6 km stretch of the Bharalu from R.G. Baruah culvert to the sluice gate at Shantipur and the 6.5 km stretch of Mora Bharalu from Lokhra to Deepor Beel.