The Jamuna has begun eating into its banks out of season in Fulchhari upazila of Gaibandha. At Baniyapara, at the edge of Ratanpur mouza in Uria union, and at the Katadwara ferry ghat in central Uria, the geobags laid to protect the bank are slumping into the river. The water is low but the current is strong, and families living beside the river want quick action.
Residents say the erosion began about ten days ago. Early on 7 November it suddenly worsened at the Katadwara ghat, and within an hour at least 20 feet of land went into the river along with the geobags. A little to the south, Baniyapara has been eroding for a week, and as the water falls erosion has appeared at several points from Hazirhat to Ketkirhat, they say. On Saturday some sand-filled geobags were seen stockpiled at the ghat.
Zakir Hossain, who keeps a shop at the ghat, said the ghat once stood much further into the river and has moved back to its present place as the bank eroded over two years; had the erosion of 7 November gone on, he could not have kept trading there. Abul Azad of Ratanpur said the river has been cutting the bank next to his house for a week, and Water Development Board staff came to look but did no work. Chhaidur Rahman, whose hut stands a few feet from the water, fears it will go the moment the geobags give way.
Residents complain that some geobags were dropped on the day the erosion peaked but nothing has been done since. Only two to four families may be harmed for now, they say, but without timely work several hundred could lose their homes when the river rises.
Abu Sayem Shafiul Islam, acting sub-divisional engineer of the Gaibandha Water Development Board, said a Tk 234 crore World Bank project has been approved for the stretch from Katadwara ghat in Ratanpur to Ghunbhari, so no other new work can be done there. Some of that project's bags will be used to hold back the erosion as far as possible, he said, and more geobags at the site are waiting to be counted by a task force; they will be dropped once the count is done.
Photo: Ibrahim Husain Meraj / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: News Bangla 24
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