Principal Secretary urged the officers and Engineers to ensure all possible preparedness for cyclone
Bhubaneswar (Kalinga Voice) : In view of possible Cyclone “YAAS” likely to affect the coastal districts of Odisha by 25th or 26th may, a Cyclone Preparedness Meeting was held on Saturday in the Department of Water Resources under the Chairmanship of Principal Secretary DoWR Smt. Anu Garg in presence of the Engineer in Chief(EIC) Jyotirmaya Rath. Addressing the meeting conducted through virtual mode, Principal Secretary urged the officers and Engineers to ensure all possible preparedness for cyclone. Review was held in respect of the coastal districts like Puri, Ganjam, Khurda, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapada, Jajpur, Bhadrak, Mayurbhanj and Balasore. Chief Engineer Flood Control, CE,Drainage, Basin Managers of districts concerned, EE of Major, Minor and Drainage participated in the discussion and expressed about their preparedness relating to Cyclone.
For possible cyclone and flood a 24 X 7, Flood Control Room has been opened and functional in the Office of the EIC, WR, Secha Sadan from 22nd May and shall continue up to 31st Oct-2021. Also Circle level and Division level FC Room will function in a similar way. EIC,WR has discussed with EIC(Civil), Works Deptt and EIC, RD Deptt, Flood control room which has also been opened in their offices from 22.05.2021. Telephone Nos. of Control Rooms of all the Departments have been shared for effective coordination. JEs, AEs, AEEs have been instructed to keep Pocket Diary with Telephone No. of Principal Secretary, EIC-WR, CE,ACE, SE, MPs, MLAs, Collector, ADM, Sub Collector, Tahsildar, BDO, SP, SDPO, IIC, Local Sarpanch for use during emergency. It has been advised to open one Whatsapp group in the district for effective coordination with District Administration and field Engineers of different Departments. All the Officers will contact the Collector and to work in coordination.
Field level Engineers have been asked to be in readiness with information such as mobile No. and address of Agencies having tools and machineries with them for use during emergency. The information is to be shared with DoWR and EIC office forthwith. As per previous practice, M/S Odisha Construction Corporation Limited(OCCL) will share the detail list of machinery and Telephone No. with the concerned EEs. EEs also have been instructed to keep the tree cutting machines available in readiness for use during exigency. Instructions have been issued to keep generators in good working condition with POL. Field staff will share the information through Google sheet about arrangements for communication of rainfall, flood forecast, gauge readings of different river systems including inflow and outflow of important reservoirs as the advanced technology “HYDOMET”APP is under testing phase.
Instruction is given to CE, Drainage for clearance of weeds, water hyacinth near culverts, causeways for free flow of water. Storage of Flood Fighting Materials at strategic locations are in readiness at some strategic locations and collection of some are in progress. From previous experience, places of water logging in low pockets at different intensities of cyclone are available with the Executive Engineers and District Administration. CE, Drainage has been instructed to look into for clearance of such pockets in exigency.
Sluice gates will be closed to check the ingress of saline water and operated at normal situation to release upstream flood water. There shall be close watch on reservoirs levels and as per necessity, reservoir gates will be operated in due consultation with concerned CE, EIC and appraising the same to Collector. Instructions have been given to ensure that the generator is in good condition. For operation of gates, operator with POL should be available at the site. CE, MI has been instructed to open a flood cell with dedicated middle level officer and support staff in CE, MI office to monitor the MI reservoirs. Sluice gates of Check dams should be kept fully open for free flow of water. EEs reported that they have kept the gates open. However CE, Drainage and MI have been instructed to doubly ensure this. Importance has been given for timely collection and reporting of flood and Cyclone messages to the Flood Control Room and all the field staff to ensure this meticulously.
All the officers have been instructed not to leave HQs. Apart from 10 coastal districts; the officials of adjoining districts have been instructed to remain in alertness so that they can be deployed to other neighbouring district in cases of emergency. Senior Engineers of the Department will be deputed to visit sites timely to ascertain the situation in the districts in close contact with the Collectors concerned.
