In a few days, Jamuna erosion in Bhandarbari union, Dhunat upazila, Bogura, has swallowed more than a hundred bighas of farmland and the homesteads of three families, and is now close to the flood control embankment. No permanent protection is being put in place, Ajker Patrika reports.
In 2003 the Bogura Water Development Board (WDB) built two 1,100-metre earthen spurs across the river at Shaharabari and Baniajan villages for Tk 6 crore, about two kilometres apart. Sand-filled geobags dropped to protect them have not stopped the erosion. On Thursday afternoon the fronts of both spurs had broken away in the strong current, and with the river falling the current has grown fiercer, cutting deep into the land between them.
Residents say the Shaharabari spur has broken three times. The homesteads of Hazrat Ali, 65, Jewel Rana and Ranju Mia went into the river, and they now live in makeshift huts on the west side of the embankment. They say geobags were dropped three times before but nothing is being done now. Earlier erosion had already wiped some 10 villages of Bhandarbari, including Boishakhi, Radhanagar, Bathuarbhita and New Sariakandi, off the upazila map; their people moved onto the embankment and are now facing the river again.
Local leaders warn that if the spurs are not saved the embankment could breach, endangering thousands of families sheltering on it, and say WDB officials were informed but have not visited.
Bogura WDB executive engineer Mahmudul Hasan said a Tk 60 crore project to control Jamuna erosion has been sent to the ministry and work will start quickly once funds are allocated.
Photo (illustrative): the Jamuna river at Sirajganj. Photo: Jubair1985 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Ajker Patrika
Comments
(0)