In the first 15 days of July, Gujarat has already received more than 45% of the season’s rainfall. As such, many regions in the state are currently witnessing heavy rainfall and have suffered waterlogging as well as flood-like situations. However, the recent statement from the state government says that due to timely action from the authorities, damage due to rainfall has been kept in check. The local authorities, under the guidance of state governments, responded swiftly and managed to keep the loss of lives and destruction of properties under control.
Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel said, “Due to the timely decisions taken by the state government, the loss of life and property could be kept under control. At present 18 NDRF teams are functioning across the state. Apart from that, 18 SDRF platoons have also been sent. NDRF and SDRF together have a total of 8 teams in reserve. More than 33 thousand people have been shifted to safe places.” Besides this, the state administration is keeping people updated on road closures, emergency helplines, and rain patterns through social media.
According to the statement, more than 33 thousand people were evacuated and moved to safer places. Shelters have been set up throughout the state for stranded people, who are being provided with essential supplies like food and water.
Gujarat government has also announced a total of Rs17.10 crores of assistance to 156 municipalities in the state. This fund will be mainly aimed at helping the civic bodies to carry out repair and recovery work in areas affected by heavy rainfall and related flood-like situations. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel has approved the immediate release of the first stage of the grant to the municipalities.
Most of the dams are nearly 50% full, especially the Sardar Sarovar Dam is 48% full. The data shows that the average rainfall recorded until now this month is more than double as compared to last year. Last year, the state received 155.92 mm of rainfall, while this year it is already 397.02 mm. The average rainfall of the state is 850 mm. Significantly, nearly 50% of the total rainfall has been recorded in 20 talukas only from July 8 to 11 this year. Every taluka has received more than 50 mm of rainfall to date. This is the first time in a decade that Gujarat has received such heavy rainfall in July.
