Leparada and West Siang have been devastated by cloudbursts that triggered landslides and heavy rains, which led to flooding of areas like never seen before. Though cloudbursts, landslides and heavy rains that claim lives and properties are usual in the state, it’s alarming that it occurred in September. This was rarely seen before.
Two lives have been lost and hundreds of acres of paddy fields were destroyed in Thursday’s flood. Roads have been severed at several places.
In West Siang and Siang, the Aalo-Pangin road, which is considered the lifeline connecting four districts, has been blocked at several points because of slides, prompting the administration to issue caution against travelling. The Aalo-Kaying BRTF road is eroded as the Sipu and the Yomgo rivers were flowing at the danger level.
There are reports of deep erosion near the Sipu bridge in West Siang, waterlogging, and inundation of cultivation fields.
Large areas of paddy fields were damaged during the cloudburst-triggered flashfloods and landslides in Leparada district on Thursday.
The Hie and the Kidi rivers ravaged houses and submerged paddy fields in the low-lying areas.
The state government must figure out a way to improve the ways of studying the weather pattern by making use of modern technology.
So far the trend has been to be blame the weather and nature. It is time to move beyond blaming nature and the weather for the failure of the state government to make use of available technology.
Expert advice should be sought; time and resources should be spent in finding out what best can be done to keep everyone safe, instead of blaming the rain and nature.