Assam flood: What’s going wrong in the Barak basin?

Assam flood: What’s going wrong in the Barak basin?

Floods in the city of Silchar for more than a week have disrupted life. Floods give a strong indication that not everything is going well with the Barak River.

About 90-95% of the town is under water and people are living without drinking water, electricity, and basic necessities. A section of the deck was cut off by alleged miscreants. Water from Barak entered the city and completely engulfed all its areas, creating a “sea of ​​trouble” for the citizens.

The project is being implemented in six Indian rivers. Barak, Mahanadi, Narmada, Godavari, Kaveri, and Periyar, pass through different geographical zones of India.

The Barak River is an integral part of the social, economic, and cultural life of the people of Manipur, Assam, Mizoram, and Nagaland.

Barak is a 900 km long border river that flows from India and Bangladesh. Its length is about 564 km in India, of which 31 km is on the Indo-Bangladesh border and the rest is in Bangladesh.
It provides a variety of environmental services, such as drinking water. It also provides industrial and agricultural purposes, livelihoods through electricity and fishing, and eco-tourism.

The Barak River flows through Indo-Burma, one of the world’s hottest biodiversity hotspots, and hosts a rich diversity of flora and fauna.

“Nevertheless, the river is under threat due to development activities in its basin. It increased water discharge, sand mining, pollution of heavy metals, increase in invasive species, and climate change,” the report said. “