IEP Chandigarh, August 28
Under the Guidance of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, every possible relief is being given to the flood affected villages.
Divulging the details,Punjab Water Resources Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer said that the department has remained on toes during the recent floods. All officials have been doing their duties day & night to provide all possible relief to those affected. The effeciency of the department was clearly seen during plugging the breach of bandh of river Sutlej in Village Ghuram, District Tarn Taran.
The minister said that a combined peak flow of 2,84,947 cusecs water, that was released from Bhakhra Dam and Pong Dam passed through Harike Headworks into River Sutlej from 12 noon on 18.08.2023 to 07:00 a.m. on 19.08.2023
This high flow persisted for 19 hours, putting immense pressure on the bandhs of the river, which were already saturated by the floods in July. On the night of 18th and 19th the continuous high discharge started tearing off large chunks of the right Bandh of the river in Tarn Taran District.
Meet Hayer added that desperate preventive measures were taken by the local villagers, departmental staff and machinery along about 1000 feet length of the bandh, throughout the night of 19th. The department was able to save most of the bandh stretch, but when the river water started to recede at a rapid pace on 19th afternoon, this decline in river discharge and level lead to the sloughing of saturated earth of the bank and the already fragile river bandh breached.
Restoration work started immediately. Multiple teams of department supplied earth filled bags at the site from different districts of Punjab like Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana and Amritsar. A total of 2.66 lacs earth filled bags were provided by fellow Division Offices at the Breach Site and all the officers of the department worked with team spirit and rose to the occasion in this time of emergency. The Breach of 350 feet length and average depth of about 28 feet has been plugged on 28.08.2023 . Materials such as empty cement bags and steel wire were provided by the department, and the social organisations chipped in with a significant component of the labour.
