Threat of dam overflow eases in flood-hit India

More than 1,700 people have died in South Asia, mostly in Bangladesh and eastern India, in weeks of flooding. In the past week the monsoon rains have moved westwards to wreak havoc in the Indian states of Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana.

Authorities had been preparing to evacuate thousands of residents from more than a dozen villages downstream from the 110-ft (34-meter) Narmada dam in Gujarat Friday after it began overflowing due to torrential rains in its catchment areas.

But a crisis appeared to have been averted Saturday after rains eased and officials said they had successfully diverted some water from the dam into canals.

"The inflow of water into the dam is not alarming any more. But the alert will continue, as we are still releasing water from the dam," said Rajiv Topno, chief of Bharuch district, where the dam is located.

The Narmada Valley project is India's biggest dam scheme. About 3,200 small, medium-sized and large dams are to be built on the 1,300-km (800-mile) long river and its tributaries to generate electricity and provide water to millions of people.

Environmentalists and other critics, led by Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy, say the scheme is unsafe, is causing massive ecological damage and will displace a million people without providing adequate compensation.

"We are relieved now. But nobody is fully sure whether the rains will make a comeback and force us out of our homes," said Sabu Vala, a resident of Bharuch.

A major power plant had to be shut down in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh because of the high silt content in the floodwater, officials said. The Naptha Jhakri power plant supplies nearly a third of the power used by northern India.

In the northern state of Haryana, 40 villages were submerged after the River Ghaggar burst its banks in two places overnight.

Troops distributed food and fodder in Haryana and neighboring Punjab to hundreds of marooned villages.