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Dantewada: Nearly 40 families were evacuated after a wall of a sump tank in an iron ore mining area collapsed in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district on Sunday, flooding low-lying areas of Kirandul town, officials said.
Two children trapped in the floods were rescued after the breach in a wall of the tank built on a hill amid intermittent rainfall, they said.
The incident took place around 3.30 pm in iron ore mine deposit no. 11 C of National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), a central public sector undertaking, on Bailadila hills in Kirandul, a district administration official said.
The eastern side wall of the NMDC sump tank, which is 70 metres long, 70 metres wide and 2.5 metres deep, collapsed, causing a sudden flow of a huge amount of water down the slope resulting in a flood-like situation in Kirandul, he said.
Soon after being alerted, the district administration launched a rescue exercise, he said.
People from at least 40 houses were moved to safer locations and two children trapped in floods were rescued and shifted to a local hospital, he said.
The people from affected areas have been put up at the Mangal Bhavan relief camp where the district administration has arranged food for them, the official said, adding that the situation is under control now.
Some houses were damaged due to the floods and the exact details in this regard will be known after a survey on Monday, he said.
Prima facie, it seems heavy rainfall for the past five to six days in the area resulted in the collapse of the tank wall but the exact cause will be known after the examination. The damaged wall is being repaired, he added.