With the onset of monsoons, Guwahati is gripped by the fear of flash flood and many citizens bemoaned that the government and administration are ill-prepared for the looming danger amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The government is busy in fighting COVID-19. The question is, is it prepared to mitigate the flash floods of Guwahati?” said a resident of Anil Nagar area of Guwahati while speaking to Northeast Now.

“Every year, right before the monsoons the government takes some steps to tackle the flash flood of Guwahati, however, we have not seen any positive result so far,” the resident added.

“Last year, even after so much of initiatives, it flooded every single time it rained,” he further said.

“Coronavirus will kill us later, but I am sure we will die out of starvation when the flash flood will grip the entire city,” he further added.

Places like Anil Nagar, Tarun Nagar, Nabin Nagar, RG Baruah Road etc are some of the worst-hit flash-flood areas of Guwahati.

People are marooned for days and weeks during this time and on several occasions, the NDRF and SDRF had also carried out rescue operations.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed down the entire flood mitigation process of Guwahati and I don’t think it is prepared enough to deal with the situation” bemoaned another resident.

Kalpajyoti Saikia is Senior Reporter of Northeast Now. He can be reached at: [email protected]