YUPIA, 27 Jun: “With the onset of the monsoon season, we must be vigilant and prepared to tackle any disaster that may arise,” said Papum Pare DC Jiken Bomjen while chairing a meeting on monsoon preparedness at his office here on Wednesday.
He urged all citizens to “stay informed and follow the guidelines issued by authorities,” and asked the line departments, including PHED, RWD, medical department, food & civil supplies department, power department, PWD, and highways department, to “prepare contingency plans to deal with emergency situations induced by natural or manmade disasters.”
Speaking about mudslides caused by illegal earth-cutting, Bomjen said that “there is a ban on earth-cutting, except for those who have obtained NOC from the district administration.”
He urged the public to be vigilant and report illegal earth-cutting activities to the administration immediately.
Pare Hydroelectric Project (HEP) Head of Operations Sania Ngurang spoke about the strategic use of dams to control and mitigate flood risks during monsoon season through regulated water release, storage capacity management, flood buffer zones, and hydrological monitoring and forecasting.
“The residents living downstream of the Pare dam need to stay informed and updated from official channels regarding water release. This can significantly reduce the impact of the floods,” Ngurang said, and urged the people to stay alert and follow the guidelines issued by the authorities.
“Automated warning systems, sirens, early warning systems, public addressing systems, signages, advertisements and WhatsApp group are being used to disseminate information regarding the opening of the dam gates,” Ngurang informed, and urged the public to not venture near the river when the warning alerts are sounded.
Pare HEP Deputy General Manager (Technical) Taba Gagung highlighted “the warning system for opening of dam gates for controlled release of water from the downstream dam, in response to any critical situation caused by the unprecedented monsoon rains.”
Gagung informed that “whenever water is to be released from the dam radial gates, sirens are blown three times – 30 minutes ahead of releasing the water. These sirens are blown all along the downstream river banks at different locations by the siren operators. At present, sirens have been installed at 10 places – dam site Jampa, Mount Cliff Resort, Sopo, Poer House Sopo, Chiputa, Mani, Midpu, Khola Camp, Doimukh, Togdo and Saturday market, Doimukh,” he added.
DDMO Nima Tashi sought cooperation from all the stakeholder departments and requested them to appoint a nodal officer “who shall be the point of contact of the department in any case of emergencies.”
In case of any emergency, the public can contact the following numbers: 9485236652 (district emergency number); 8837317622 (DDMO); 7629937607 (fire services OC); 9485231948 (Chimpu-based SDRF CO); and 9485236145/9485235464 (NDRF control room, Doimukh). (DIPRO)
