10-15 believed dead as rain wreaks havoc in Maharashtra

About 10 to 15 people are believed to have died in the heavy rains that lashed Maharashtra over the last two days. Additional chief secretary Jageshwar S Saharia (relief and rehabilitation) said the figure was unconfirmed and preliminary since the final reports from the various districts were still to come in.

“Wherever there have been reports of people needing help, our priority is the rescue work. Next is providing the victims with relief and only after that will the report be filed,” Saharia said, adding the final figure would be available by Tuesday.

The additional chief secretary also said there have been no reports of any major damage in any part of the state. He said that when water was discharged, villagers had been forewarned to stay away from the banks of the river. He also said that due to heavy rains, trains and roads had been blocked, but not for long.

“All highways in the state are open. They may have shut down for an hour or two when there was excessive water on the road, but that’s about it,” he said. He added that entire situation in the state was normal and authorities were monitoring the situation round the clock. “The district collector has been given authority to take the appropriate measures to ensure that everything is normal in his district,” Saharia added.

The intense rains in the state over the last couple of days means that almost all districts in the state excluding the Vidarbha region have received sufficient or excessive rainfall. Till Sunday morning, Mumbai city had received 142% of its scheduled rainfall, Mumbai suburbs 146%, Thane 116%, and Raigad 122%.

The good news is that all the lakes supplying water to Mumbai such as the Tansa, Modak, Vaitarna, Tulsi, Bhatsa and Vihar are overflowing. But for Mumbai not to have water cuts next year, the lakes need to be overflowing in September end.

Similarly, most lakes and dams along western Maharashtra are overflowing or on the verge of overflowing. The authorities have begun releasing water from most of the dams.  The massive Koyna dam had discharged 80,000 cusecs of water till Monday morning and was still discharging at 1.5 cusecs per second. Similarly the Bhatsa had discharged 1060 cusecs till Sunday morning.

Saharia said they are happy with the rains. “It is always better to have a little  more rain than a little less rain,” he said. But he added that if the weather did not improve over the next few days, it might damage crops. “Ideally, the rains should stop for some time now before the next wet spell,” he said, adding that that would benefit the farmers in the state.

The Vidarbha region was still a bit deficient in the rainfall it had received, but Saharia was optimistic that rains over the next few weeks would mean perfectly normal monsoon for the entire state. “All districts have received 75% of their average rainfall (measured from June 1 to September 30),” he said.