NORTH LAKHIMPUR, July 6 � The North East Electrical Power Corporation (NEEPCO) will sponsor the Community Based Flood Early Warning System (CB-FEWS) on the downstream of Ranganadi river in Lakhimpur to deal with the problem of flooding in the wake of release of dam water from its Ranganadi Hydro-Electrical Power (RHEP) plant at Yazali inside Arunachal Pradesh. This was agreed to in a meeting held between NEEPCO and the Lakhimpur district administration at North Lakhimpur on June 30.
The meeting was chaired by the Lakhimpur Deputy Commissioner, Debeswar Malakar and was attended by NEEPCO�s senior manager Tanya Taji and Mohanlal Kumhar, besides other concerned officials from the Lakhimpur district administration and from Aaranyak, a conservationist group. In the meeting, the Lakhimpur DC informed the NEEPCO officials about the problems faced by people in the downstream areas of Ranganadi river with the release of excess dam water from the RHEP and asked them to take measures to check this problem.
The NEEPCO officials expressed their inability to stop the release of excess dam water as the reservoir had the limit of 567 metres of level of water on the �run of the river� project of RHEP. Further, they said that the various tributaries of Ranganadi contribute more water to the river in the downstream areas.
The Water Resources Department officials of Lakhimpur district at that meeting asked the NEEPCO to regulate the release of the dam water on the downstream of Ranganadi river. Dr Partha Jyoti Das, programme head of WATCH, Aaranyak presented the Community Based Flood Early Warning System (CB-FEWS) on Singra river in Lakhimpur district and Jiadhal river in Dhemaji district in that meeting, in which the District Disaster Management Authority was a partner. He proposed the same project to be started on the Raganadi.
The CB-FEWS proposal on Ranganadi river was accepted in the meeting and NEEPCO agreed to sponsor the project. The NEEPCO also agreed to regulate the release of excess dam water of RHEP on the downstream of Ranganadi. The meeting also took a resolution that the Water Resources department will be asked to raise the height of the Ranganadi embankment.
