North Lakhimpur: The morning of May 31 brought devastating news to Toon Dutta, a 45-year-old mother of two from Simaluguri, Major Chapori, Aamtola-Panigaon in Assam’s Lakhimpur district. Her son urgently told her that NEEPCO was releasing water from its PHEP dam, and a flash flood was imminent. With no time to save anything, the rising waters swiftly washed away their home and grocery store, destroying all its stock. Their refrigerator and other household belongings were also damaged.
“I took a loan of Rs. 50,000 from the Assam Gramin Vikas Bank as a member of an SHG and invested the entire amount in my grocery store,” Toon lamented. “I’ve paid six EMIs before the flood, but with all my collateral gone in the Ranganadi flood, how can I possibly return the remaining outstanding amount in two years?”
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Since 2008, the Ranganadi floods, caused by water releases from NEEPCO’s 405 MW PHEP dam, have unleashed devastating deluges downstream in Lakhimpur district. These annual occurrences have claimed lives and destroyed properties and infrastructure worth crores of rupees. As the floodwaters recede, the full extent of the losses is now becoming tragically clear, with women bearing the brunt of this man-made disaster.
Stories of Loss and Resilience
When the Ranganadi flood breached the ULFA embankment (named after the insurgent group ULFA, who manually constructed the bund in 1989 during their overground activities) on the late afternoon of May 31 in Nagargaon, Aamtola, Panigaon, Pubali Das (39), a widow and mother of three, watched her sturdy concrete house, built by her late husband, rapidly submerge. Desperate to save some belongings, Pubali bravely jumped into the chest-deep water and was almost swept away, only to be rescued by another woman. Before she fainted, her vision blurred as she witnessed her home being consumed by the fast-moving floodwaters.
“I lost my husband, Pranab Das, in a road accident in 2023. He had completed this house, and it held his memory. Now the structure is gone, erasing the living testimony of my husband, which is far more significant than the material loss,” Pubali stated, sitting inside a makeshift shelter on the ULFA embankment, facing her destroyed house.
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Pubali’s material losses are indeed substantial. She was a village entrepreneur, running a grocery store and selling agricultural products before the flood-induced tragedy. Now, with all the paddy in her barn and her grocery stock gone, Pubali faces a daunting challenge to sustain her family in the coming days.
The pervasive sight of displacement and loss is evident in all the makeshift shelters lining the embankment. Gul Das (65), wife of Munukan Das from the same village in Aamtola, recounted her trauma from that fateful morning. “I lost my savings of Rs. 7,000 and an EMI amount of Rs. 500 for my SHG loan, both in cash, to the floodwaters. I had kept them under my pillow,” Gul Das recalled with a sigh.
Impact on Young Entrepreneurs
The women severely affected by the flood from NEEPCO’s PHEP dam in Assam’s Lakhimpur district were largely economically stable, with their own small-scale businesses, in addition to earnings from family members, agriculture, and allied activities. Kakumoni Bora (16), daughter of Ananda Bora from Moluwal village in the riverine Aamtola region, was a talented young designer making dresses for local demand.
A tenth-standard student, Kakumoni financially supported her parents while her elder brother worked as a migrant in Hyderabad. On the morning of May 31, the PHEP dam-induced flood swept away her house with all its belongings, including her precious sewing machine. Currently living in a makeshift shed on the left-hand side embankment of Ranganadi in Korotipar, Kakumoni is unable to afford a new machine.
Close to Kakumoni’s shelter lives her friend, Barnali Neog (19), a 12th-grade pass student, with her parents Ashok Neog (60) and Lahari Neog (54). Barnali also worked as a tailor, using a sewing machine her mother purchased through the Arunodoy scheme. Though the family managed to save the sewing machine from the Ranganadi flood, their entire house in Paschim Karatipar village was destroyed. Her elder brother, who works in Hyderabad, could not remit much, and Barnali significantly contributed to the family income until the flood swept away their hard-earned possessions.
Beyond Financial Losses: Gender-Specific Challenges
Beyond financial losses, these flood-affected women face other gender-specific problems. None of the shelter sheds have proper toilet facilities or adequate drinking water. While state agencies provided relief materials in the form of food and rations, the tube wells installed by the state PHE department yield water heavily contaminated with iron. Most critically, dignified wash facilities for the personal hygienic care of the affected women are still not provided.
Strikingly, all the flood victims have blamed the authorities for the last-minute warning regarding the release of dam water. As soon as villagers downstream of Ranganadi received the alarm, the river swelled with terrifying speed within an hour, leaving them no time to save their belongings or valuables. A communication gap between NEEPCO authorities and state agencies could be one reason for the rapid surge in the river following the opening of reservoir gates by PHEP-Yazali, Arunachal Pradesh.
Even Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma publicly blamed NEEPCO for releasing a huge amount of water in a short time, leading to the disaster in Lakhimpur district. The dam gates of PHEP were opened up to 1,250 cusecs around 1 AM on May 31, but villagers in Aamtola received the information only around 7 AM. Similar releases of dam water from PHEP by NEEPCO wreaked havoc in Lakhimpur’s Aamtola and other areas in 2008 and 2015, in addition to causing annual floods.