Rising Ganga causes anxiety before Mauni great bath

SANGAM (Allahabad): Heavy rains in the past few days have caused a sudden rise in the level of the Ganga with makeshift ghats shifted back as water has begun flooding barricades and sandbags. Even as lakhs of devotees started arriving for the bath on the auspicious night of Mauni Amavasya on Thursday, the abnormal rise in the level of water in the Ganga, compared to previous years, is ringing alarm bells.

On Wednesday, the level was 73.50m at Sangam, a full 1.5 m above last year's normal on the same occasion (Mauni Amavasya on February 10). It's expected to rise further in the next 12 hours when over 80 lakhs devotees are expected to take a holy dip in Sangam on Thursday.

"We know that the level of water is far above normal compared to previous years, for which heavy rain in the upper Himalayas and the plains is responsible. But we are prepared," said executive engineer at UP Flood Control department, JP Verma.

The 12 makeshift ghats, prepared by mela administration, are facing the brunt of Ganga's fury. Authorities have been forced to dump a large number of sandbags to control erosion. Many of these ghats, especially on the Jhunsi side, have had to be moved back as water has flooded the sandbags.

Besides, the volume of water discharged downstream was 793.32 cusec per metre per second on January 27, which increased to 810.69 cusec on the following day and with the level still increasing.

"The water level will increase further but only by few centimeters and as such we have equipped ourselves quite well," said Verma. "Apart from rains, which have added to the existing volume of water in Ganga, the rains have irrigated the fields and the peasants have not drained out the water from Ganga for irrigational purposes thereby leaving water flow uninterrupted," said Prof S S Ojha of Allahabad University's Geography Department.