| Bhadrak: More than 5 lakh people have been affected in this year’s flood in Keonjhar, Jajpur and Bhadrak districts as the Baitarani wreaked havoc. This has been a regular affair over the past few years with all plans to tame the Baitarani falling flat.
In 1958, the Baitarani irrigation division prepared the Vimkund dam report, a multi-purpose project, on river Baitarani. The dam to be constructed on Baitarani in Keonjhar district's Nuapada would generate electricity, irrigate thousands of hectares of land and control flood.
But the project report could only be submitted to the Central Water Commission (CWC) in 1974. But the CWC rejected it and suggested selection of another site for the dam. "The CWC also rejected the second site in 1984,", official sources said. The Baitarani river bed has been filled with sand causing floods and breaches in embankments. "For flood control, dredging of Baitarani is inevitable. Besides, the embankments of the tributaries of Baitarani, including Kochi-la and Ganguti, must also be strengthened," an engineer in the irrigation department said. According to official sources, more than Rs 3,750 crore has been spent on flood relief in the past decade. The Vimkund dam project would have cost much less, said Tusharkanti Jena, a member of Jana Surakshya Samiti, a voluntary organisation. Collector Nalinikanta Burma said, "A master plan is required to save the three districts from flood fury. But in Bhadrak permanent embankment and river bed dredging is necessary to control the flood." | 
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