Varuna Sits at Warning Mark 70.21 m as Ganga Falls; City Takes 4–6 Hour Power Cuts

The Varuna at Varanasi sat on its warning mark of 70.21 metres on Wednesday, 26 August 2026, Central Water Commission figures compiled through a 5:45 am Thursday update showed, even as the Ganga kept falling for a third day into a 67.92–67.97-metre band. Bank settlements along the tributary were still under water. The same Wednesday brought four-to-six-hour power cuts on named city and rural feeders after rain and a snapped 11 kV line at Rajatalab.

CWC put the Varuna at 70.21 metres — at, and equal to, the published warning mark for that gauge. The commission described the tributary’s rise as stable at that stage, not a fresh climb. Stability at warning is not dry ground. Families whose rooms already took river water were still on roofs or in rented rooms while the gauge held the line.

The Ganga, by contrast, was recorded between 67.92 and 67.97 metres and falling. Late-August CWC marks for the Ganga at Varanasi in the previous three years sat lower: 64.76 metres in 2023, 66.96 metres in 2024 and 67.86 metres in 2025. This week’s band is a fall from the present monsoon’s flood peak, not a return to those quieter late-August floors. The split is the operational story: main river easing, tributary locked to warning.

Along the Varuna, water had not left the settlements. At Salarpur, tent dwellers Chanda Devi and Anil Verma said they had not received help from the administration. District offices had not published a fresh house-by-house tally for those tents. The named accounts are who was still camped out while CWC logged 70.21 metres.

Power failed for four to six hours on Wednesday in Sigra, Mahmoorganj, Lahurabeer, Pandeypur, Hukulganj, Manduadih, Lanka, Samne Ghat and Adampura. Rural feeders in Cholapur, Rohania, Rajatalab, Chirai Gaon and Chaubepur took the same cut, the electricity department’s outage list showed. The evening fault at Rajatalab was specific: an 11 kV line came down after a tree branch fell near the government livestock farm, cutting supply to Shahanshahpur, Paniyara, Narottampur and Sihorwa.

Wet trees on 11 kV corridors, overloaded urban feeders, and a warning-stage tributary arrived together. Wednesday’s four-to-six-hour window is what households sat through while CWC was logging 70.21 metres on the Varuna.

District administration continued flood watch on the tributary banks. No separate official claim was issued that Varuna-side tents had been closed or that roof stays had ended. Electricity crews were still working the Rajatalab 11 kV tree-fall that had blacked out the four villages hanging off that spur.

This late-August split is the third year running in the CWC series used here: the Ganga’s late-August mark has climbed year on year from 64.76 metres in 2023 through 66.96 metres in 2024 to 67.86 metres in 2025, and this week’s falling 67.92–67.97-metre band still sits above those floors even as it eases from the present peak. The Varuna sitting exactly on 70.21 metres is a different river, a different gauge, and a different problem for the tents at Salarpur.

Until district offices put a house-by-house list against those tents, Chanda Devi and Anil Verma’s account is the ground file. Until the 11 kV at the livestock farm is back, Shahanshahpur, Paniyara, Narottampur and Sihorwa stay on the outage map that already named Sigra through Chaubepur on Wednesday.