Floods continue to wreak havoc in Northeast

Floods continued to wreak havoc in Assam on Thursday, as several districts remained inundated and water levels of rivers continued to rise at an alarming rate.

Nimati Ghat (Assam), July 26 : Floods continued to wreak havoc in Assam on Thursday, as several districts remained inundated and water levels of rivers continued to rise at an alarming rate.

In Nimati Ghat in Assam's Jorhat District, in the upper reaches of the state, rising waters of river Bharamaputra swamped large swathes of farmland, submerging homes and disrupting road transport.

"People living in Majuli and Jorhat are having problems commuting between places. The farmers are also facing a lot of problems and the embankments are being threatened by floods," said Praveen Bharali, a local.

Biren Kolita, another local, said: "Our only hope was our farmlands and that has also been destroyed in floods."

Numerous old embankments built along Assam's rivers have outlived their life span, officials say, and there are fears they could give way under the pressure of fast-flowing waters.

Floodwaters have poured into or destroyed more than half a million homes in northeast in the past few days, flood control officials said.About 10,000 people from Tripura and Assam states have been forced into relief camps, while hundreds of thousands more are wading in knee-deep water in and around their homes after intense downpours in recent days.

ANI