With the arrival of the monsoon, there has been a rise in the water level in the Brahmaputra leading to nearly 90 villages being inundated and over one lakh people being affected in Lakhimpur district of eastern Assam. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has already been pressed into service to rescue the affected people.

Flood waters of the river entered the villages on Wednesday night through breached portions of the embankments at Matmora in Dhakuakhona sub-division. Lakhimpur Deputy Commissioner Jayant Narlikar said that only about 1,000 people have taken shelter at a relief camp set up by authorities.

In Guwahati, the state Revenue Commissioner V K Pipersenia, said that though the construction of an embankment using geo-tube technology — that has never been used earlier — had been started, it could not be completed before the monsoon. The state Revenue Minister Bhumidhar Barman said the state government has already put the relief and rescue mechanism on high alert in the flood-prone districts.