Amid rising waters and growing public distress, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday conducted an on-ground review of flood relief operations in Hailakandi district, one of the areas severely impacted by the ongoing monsoon floods.

The visit underscores the scale of the crisis, which has now displaced over 5.6 lakh people across 19 districts in the state.

Advertisement

In Hailakandi, the Chief Minister visited a major relief camp housing hundreds of flood-affected residents. Many of them have lost homes, farmland, and livelihoods as floodwaters swept through their villages earlier this week.

During his visit, Sarma interacted with displaced families and assured them of sustained government support.

“We have deployed medical teams, ensured drinking water supply, and are providing cooked meals at every camp. The administration is working round the clock to ensure that the displaced do not suffer further,” Sarma stated in a social media update after inspecting the camp.

The Chief Minister also held briefings with local officials and reviewed the situation in nearby camps in Kalinagar and Panchgram, both of which have reported swelling numbers of evacuees over the past 72 hours. He directed district authorities to speed up sanitation work and ensure that relief materials — particularly food, drinking water, baby food, and sanitary items — are available without delay.

While water levels have started receding in some parts of central Assam, such as Morigaon district, the damage has already been done.

According to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), 117 villages in Morigaon are still underwater, with hundreds of hectares of cropland submerged and livestock losses continuing to rise.

In Barak Valley’s Sribhumi and North Sribhumi’s Baatgram, residents remain marooned as large swathes of land, including residential areas and markets, remain underwater. The floods have severely disrupted transportation, with roads washed away or rendered unusable. Power and mobile networks in some pockets remain erratic, adding to the chaos.

Floods in Assam are not new — they have become a seasonal crisis. Driven by torrential monsoon rains and the swelling Brahmaputra and Barak river systems, the floods recur with alarming regularity each year. Environmentalists and policy experts have often pointed to a combination of climate change, deforestation in catchment areas, encroachment of floodplains, and weak embankment infrastructure as key contributors.

Despite repeated appeals from the Assam government to the Centre to declare the state’s floods a national disaster, no such classification has yet been granted. The lack of such recognition, critics say, hinders the flow of emergency funds and long-term mitigation investments.

The ASDMA has set up over 1,200 relief camps and distribution centres, but pressure is mounting on resources as more people continue to arrive.

Civil society groups and volunteers have stepped in, supplementing official efforts with food packets, clothes, and hygiene kits.
As the state awaits a break in rainfall, authorities have asked residents in vulnerable areas to remain on high alert.

While the Indian Meteorological Department has forecast a gradual decline in rainfall in the coming days, the risk of waterborne diseases, post-flood health crises, and crop loss remains high.