Flooding is an annual phenomenon in the North Eastern territory of India called Assam which shares a very small border with the Bangladesh and the Brahmaputra happens to flow through this region into Bangladesh. The continuous deposits of silt bring down the depth of the Jia Bhoroli river which is a tributary of the Brahmaputra (9th largest river in the world by discharge, and the 15th longest in the world) which accelerates the flow of the river causing it to overflow which further causes erosion of the banks washing away the houses and farms lands of the poor people living in the region.
The Assam water resources department has started dredging the Jia Bhoroli river, on a pilot basis in a bid to pave way for more such initiatives on other tributaries as an effective flood-control measure.
Inaugurating the dredging work at Bokagaon, Balipara in Sonitpur district on Tuesday, The State chief minister said that each year, the river bed of Jia Bhoroli was getting shallower as a huge quantity of silt gets deposited there. The loss in depth of the river bed has resulted in decrease of water-carrying capacity and flooding by the river on both banks.
To mitigate this problem, the chief minister said the water resources department has started dredging a 20-km stretch of the river which would gradually de-silt and restore the river depth.
The Minister further said that the state government is working towards a flood-free Assam and success of dredging in the Jia Bhoroli on a pilot basis would pave the way for more such initiatives on the Kundil, Jiadhol and Aai rivers as an effective flood-control measure.
Following a global tendering process in 2020, the Water Resources department issued the work order to the USA-based company, ‘Ellicott Dredges’, to supply the ‘river dredger’ which was shipped to Mumbai seaport and was later transported to the North East of the country via the road.
The water resources department has taken steps to build 1000 km of concrete embankments too. The minister said that a sum of Rs 1500 crore (200 Mn USD) has been allotted to the department for flood management and the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded projects are also underway on various rivers.
