Ganga at Gandhi Ghat sets a new high of 50.58 metres as 10.26 lakh people take flood water

The Ganga at Gandhi Ghat in Patna rose to 50.58 metres on Saturday, six centimetres above the previous highest flood level of 50.52 metres set on 21 August 2016. It was the first time that mark had been broken in a decade. By 10 a.m. the river was already at 50.53 metres. By 3 p.m. it stood at 50.57 metres, flowing 1.97 metres above danger level. The Water Resources Department said it could reach 50.62 metres by 8 a.m. on Sunday.

Bihar's Disaster Management Department put the number of people affected at 10.26 lakh, across 50 blocks and 201 gram panchayats in 11 to 12 basin districts. Homes, roads, markets and fields are under water in Begusarai and Vaishali. Families have left by boat. At Pandarak, about 90 kilometres downstream of Patna, the Ganga was at 43.78 metres, above the August 2021 record of 43.73 metres.

The Ganga is not the only river over the line. The Gandak was above danger at Dumriaghat and Hajipur. The Kosi was above danger at Baltara. The Burhi Gandak was above danger at Khagaria. The Ganga itself was above danger at Digha, Hathidah, Bhagalpur, Kahalgaon, Buxar and Munger. The Punpun at Sripalpur and the Ghaghara at Darauli had also crossed. The Punpun had risen 28 centimetres in 24 hours and was flowing 2.57 metres above danger at Sripalpur. In Bhagalpur the Ganga was climbing at about two centimetres an hour, 46 centimetres up in a day, putting pressure on the Raghopur-Kajikoraiya embankment.

The WRD engineer-in-chief sent an express message to district magistrates and superintendents of police in the 12 districts. Because a new highest flood level was possible at Gandhi Ghat, he wrote, pressure would be high all the way downstream, especially in the diara lands between the river's channels. People in villages along the bank should move. District squads already formed should patrol without a break.

September rain in Bihar is running hot. The state has had 60.8 millimetres so far this month, 69 percent above normal. Water is also coming out of Nepal, where the late-August ice-rock collapse and the wider monsoon have loaded the same Himalayan tributaries that feed the Ganga, Kosi and Gandak. The two stories share a drainage system even when they do not share a headline.

Patna's Gandhi Ghat is a gauge and a public space. When the reading there sets a record, the city sees the number on the evening bulletin and on the steps. The last time the river sat this high was 2016. Ten years of embankment work, dredging arguments and flood forecasts sat between that mark and Saturday's 50.58 metres. The mark moved anyway.

Uttar Pradesh is in the same rise. The Ganga, Ghaghara and Sai have crossed warning levels. Prayagraj's ghats have taken water. The shared basin does not respect the state line. Bihar's bulletin is the sharper one because the capital gauge itself has gone through the old ceiling.

Sunday morning's 50.62-metre forecast is the next number that matters. If it arrives, more low ground in Patna goes under and the downstream diara villages face a second night of moving. If the river steadies, the record still stands and the 10.26 lakh people already counted remain the population of this flood.

Flood season in Bihar is usually an argument about embankments and warnings. This weekend the argument has a cleaner centre. A capital gauge that had not been beaten since 2016 now sits at 50.58 metres. The engineer-in-chief's note to 12 districts is the state conceding that the old planning mark is no longer the ceiling. Boat lists and patrol rosters have to be rebuilt against a river that wrote a new high-water line in a single Saturday.