As water level rises, all 56 gates of Saptakoshi barrage opened

By Baburam Karki,Barahakshetra, July 9: As the water level in the Saptakoshi River continues to increase, fear and anxiety have arisen among the locals residing around the mighty river. 

The locals near the Koshi corridor are worried that the river might overflow and inundate the human settlements.

Kishna Prasad Nepal, an 82-year-old local, said that with the excessive flow of water in the Koshi River in the first week of July, the locals, who usually show concern even for minor floods, have been losing sleep and appetite. 

Like every year, as the monsoon season begins and the water flow in the Koshi River increases, the locals around the corridor start having a premonition of impending danger.

With the water rising up to the embankments, the locals have become frightened. The four months of monsoon rain in the Himalayan and hilly regions cause fear to take hold among the residents near the river in Sunsari, Udayapur, and Saptari districts. 

With each monsoon flood, the silt, clay, and debris carried by the muddy water raise the riverbed’s level, intensifying the locals' worries and concerns.

As the water flow reached extreme levels, all 56 gates of the Koshi barrage were opened on Sunday morning. The control room of the Koshi Barrage said that all 56 gates were opened after the water flow reached an extreme level on Saturday night.

Although the Koshi Barrage could initially hold 900,000 cusecs, the water rose to its banks when the water level was only 370,150 cusecs water per second at 10:00 am on Sunday, prompting the authorities to open all 56 gates of the barrage, said Pramod Paudel, the contact and land acquisition officer of the Koshi Project in Biratnagar. 

Paudel said, "As the riverbed level rose due to slit, bringing water to the embankment's edge, all the barrage gates were opened."

The Saptakoshi River, flowing through the gorge up to Chatara, spreads out into the plains from there. As the river level rises, the silt and debris carried by the flood create numerous sandbanks within the Koshi River, spreading into the flatlands from Chatara.