Twin rivers start receding after a week

Prayagraj: After remaining stable for most part of the day on Monday, water level in Ganga and Yamuna have started receding at all the three measuring points in Prayagraj providing some relief to residents and officials alike.
While Ganga was receding at a rate of around 7 cm every 2 hours, water in Yamuna was coming down at a rate of 6cm at a gap of 2 hours.
Compared to the last 24 hours (as per reading on 4pm of Monday and that of same time on Tuesday), flood water in river Ganga had come down by 14 cm at Phaphamau and 26 cm at Chhatnag. Likewise, water level in Yamuna had come down by 27 cm in the past 24 hours. Experts said with the water level stabilising in Prayagraj, the same would start receding further downstream by the evening. However, both the rivers were still flowing over a metre above the danger mark of 84.734m.
In the past one week, the water level in the twin rivers has been rising menacingly largely because of heavy rain in parts of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and even Uttrakhand. Rain and subsequent floods in these states caused barrages located on rivers Chambal, Ken, Betwa (all tributaries of Yamuna) and that on Ganga at Narora, Kanpur etc to overflow. This caused both Ganga and Yamuna to swell at Prayagraj and further downstream.
Water level of Ganga on Tuesday at Phaphamau stood at 85.88 m and it further decreased to 85.77m by 4pm even as the receding trend was continuing.
Likewise, Ganga at Chhatnag was also receding all day through and was flowing at 85.02 m at 8am and by 4pm, the water level came down to 84.84m, a thin margin of flowing over danger mark. Similarly, Yamuna too was flowing above the danger mark but was receding. At 8am, the water level at Naini was recorded at 85.84 m whereas at 4pm, it came down to 85.62m.
“The water level has started receding and will continue the trend in the coming days and by Wednesday evening both the rivers could come below the danger mark,” said executive engineer of the flood control department, Brijesh Kumar Verma. As there is absence of rain in the areas of the upper stream of the rivers or its tributaries and at the same time, there is no heavy discharge of additional water from the barrages, the floods would recede, he added.
With water receding, devotees of bade Hanuman temple that is presently inundated have started preparing to clean the temple. Likewise, locals staying in the flood-affected areas too are happy that soon they would be able to make it back to their homes after staying in shelter homes or other safer places for the past 10 days.
“Besides cleaning the house, I will also have to again consult the architect to look into the strength of my building and I suggest the same to everyone whose houses have been submerged in water for such a long period of time,” said a resident of Salori locality Bola Nath Mishra.