The Bihar government has issued a severe flood alert for the entire northern part of the state because of excessive rainfall in Nepal which is expected to trigger an unprecedented flow in the Gandak, Kosi, Mahananda and other rivers in the 48 hours beginning Saturday.

Heavy release of water in Gandak, Kosi and Bagmati rivers has already brought floods in 13 districts of Bihar on Saturday, affecting over 1.41 lakh population. West Champaran, East Champaran, Sheohar, Gopalganj, Siwan, Sitamarhi, Araria, Kishanganj, Purnea, Supaul, Madhepura, Muzaffarpur and Madhubani have been badly affected. Rescue and relief operations by the state agencies have started.

Leaves of water resources department (WRD) officials have been cancelled to deal with any emergency. They have been asked to camp near sensitive points of river embankments and similar structures for the next two days to ensure their protection.

The district administrations have also been alerted to stand ready to tackle the imminent floods. They have been asked to inform the people staying in the area between rivers and their embankments, as well as, patrol the places expected to be affected.

“The flood management centre of the water resources department has forecast the possibility of 6.81 lakh cusec discharge of water from the Kosi barrage at Birpur in Supaul district on Saturday afternoon and 6 lakh cusec discharge from the Valmikinagar barrage over the Gandak river in West Champaran district on Saturday midnight.

“These will be close to the maximum ever discharges from these two barrages,” the alert issued by the government said.

One cusec or “cubic foot per second” is 28.32 litres of water crossing any particular point in a second.

“Water discharge at the Birpur barrage over the Kosi river crossed 5.21 lakh cusec, while the discharge at Valmikinagar barrage on the Gandak touched 4.32 lakh cusec at 1pm on Saturday and is rising,” state disaster management department officer on special duty Avinash Kumar said.

Both the barrages are located along the India-Nepal border and are controlled by Bihar WRD engineers. They have to open the floodgates to save the structure from the increased pressure of water.

The India Meteorological Department has issued a five-day red alert (possibility of extremely heavy rainfall) for places in East Champaran, West Champaran, Araria, Kishanganj and Gopalganj.