Patna: Deputy CM and water resources department (WRD) minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary said on Monday that only old ring bunds and similar zamindari bunds had been breached by surging floodwaters this season, while embankments strengthened using modern technology remained intact.Talking to reporters at the WRD headquarters, Choudhary said, “The embankments strengthened scientifically are safe. Nowhere has a breach occurred in such embankments.”He said the department’s engineers had done “appreciable work” in keeping the embankment safe in Kharik block of Bhagalpur district, where a change in the course of the Ganga exerted “serious pressure” on the embankment. This, he said, helped protect residential areas in Naugachhia block from inundation.Heavy rainfall in neighbouring Jharkhand caused the Punpun and Dardha rivers to swell, posing a serious challenge as their water levels rose to record levels, Choudhary said. Their floodwaters overtopped minor and zamindari bunds, while engineers responded in time to plug the small breaches that occurred, he added.Choudhary said this year’s flood pattern was different from the usual trend, when rivers such as the Kosi, Gandak, Bagmati and Kamla, which originate in Nepal, swell first following rainfall there.“However, this year, the flood situation developed first in the Ganga due to climatic changes and several other factors, as a result of which previous records were broken at several places,” he said.He said relief distribution and flood assistance were being carried out as per the standard operating procedure framed during the tenure of former chief minister Nitish Kumar. Chief minister Samrat Choudhary had also conducted an aerial survey of flood-affected areas and monitored relief distribution, he added.
