Some areas remain waterlogged in Patna

PATNA: While some of the areas in Patna remained waterlogged till Sunday evening following heavy rainfall on Friday night and faulty drainage system, most of the rivers, including the Ganga, were flowing below the danger level in the state.
The heavy rainfall on Friday-Saturday was not uniformly widespread as Barh received 70mm rainfall while Patna, 85km away from it, had 146mm and Masaurhi, 25km away from Patna, received only 15mm rainfall.
However, roads and lanes in many localities of Patna had waterlogging due to the faulty drainage system. In fact, Patna and towns in its adjoining districts are expected to be further plagued by heavy rainfall and waterlogging, as dense rain-bearing clouds have overcast the sky in Patna, Bhojpur, Arwal and Jehanabad, but heavy rainfall is expected at isolated places only.
“Even on Sunday, these districts were marked yellow. They will receive heavy rainfall at isolated places, but it is unlikely to bring any dramatic change in the volume of water flowing through the Ganga,” a water resources department (WRD) official said.
“At present, the south-west monsoon has weakened. Whatever rainfall Bihar, Nepal and eastern states are receiving is due to the cloud movement originating from the Bay of Bengal,” the WRD source said.
However, on Sunday-Monday, the catchment areas of Kosi and Mahananda rivers in Nepal are expected to have heavy rainfall, but only at isolated places.
It will be on the same pattern as was witnessed on Saturday, when the catchment areas of the Mahananda in Nepal received isolated heavy rainfall to the tune of 155mm at Chandragarh in Jhapa district. For the last couple of days, the heavy rainfall received has been only at isolated places.
The water discharge through the Birpur barrage across the Kosi and Valmiki Nagar barrage across the Gandak fell on Sunday from 1.06 lakh cusecs to 1.03 lakh cusecs at Birpur and from 99,800 cusecs to 81,800 cusecs at Valmiki Nagar on Saturday. However, the discharge through Indrapuri barrage across Sone river has increased from 21,894 cusecs to 38,224 cusecs.
Further, the water levels of the rivers flowing through north Bihar were below the danger mark at most places along their downstream, the WRD flood bulletin on Sunday said.
As to the Ganga, it was flowing below the danger mark at Buxar, Digha and Gandhi Ghat in Patna as well as at Hathidah, Munger, Bhagalpur and Kahalgaon. However, the volume of water flowing through the river from Hathidah onwards was increasing, but was still much below their respective danger level.