Surging water of mighty Siang river has breached an embankment at Mebo in East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh on Tuesday, posing serious threat of flood fury in entire Mebo sub-division.
Strong current of the river, which overflowed boulder bund at Sigar on its left bank, breached the embankment making idle all technical measures adopted by the water resource engineers.
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The fund of Rs Rs 35 crore for erection of the embankment was sanctioned under Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), out of which Rs 30 crore has already been released.
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The ministry by its letter vide no. NESIDS-11017/1/2019-O/o US (NLCPR) issued on August 1, last year for one-time central financial assistance for flood protection works and renovation of damaged infrastructure by the floods in Mebo sub-division in East Siang district.
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The local villagers of Mebo alleged that the district level monitoring committee for the project did not monitor the construction activities, while the contractor concerned has not followed the specified alignment in erecting the bounder spars.
“The entire construction activities were done under active supervision of the local MLA. The local villagers of Mebo opposed reduction of the span and angle of the bund, but the contractor did not pay heed,” lamented a public leader of Mebo constituency, Shoney Pertin.
On the other hand, rising water level of Siang river is posing a serious threat to entire rural areas of Mebo sub-division.
Unabated erosion by the river has gripped several acres of fertile cropland at Motum area, while it has eroded more than 50 dwelling houses at Seram and Kongkul village in the last couple of years.
More than 100 families of the sub-division were displaced due to unabated flood and erosion caused by Siang river.
Sources from the State’s Water Resource department informed that Siang river is almost reaching the danger mark at Komolighat near Pasighat town.