River erosion at Hazir Hat in Dashmina upazila of Patuakhali now threatens not only homes but family graveyards. As the Tentulia river creeps towards the bank, residents are moving their houses one by one for fear of losing their homesteads.

Fearing the graves would be lost to the river, local resident Nizam Mridha was forced to exhume the remains of his father and grandmother and bury them elsewhere. His father, Khalil Mirza, died about 13 months ago; his grandmother, Maya Jan Bibi, about 11 years ago; both were buried on the family homestead. After moving the graves he moved his own house too, and now lives under the open sky.

The erosion runs from the gate of Chowkidar Bari, north of Hazir Hat bazar, to the Hazir Hat mosque. At least five families have already shifted their homes, and residents say more than 200 households are at risk of losing their homesteads if it continues. The affected stretch holds an old graveyard, a school and farmland as well as houses, all of which could go into the river at any time.

Residents say the loss goes beyond property: ancestors' graves, family history and social ties are bound up in the place, and while a house can be rebuilt elsewhere, those cannot be brought back. Moving a house, losing land, changing where one works and starting over all add to the burden on the affected families; many do not yet know where they will go — some are with relatives, some temporarily on others' land, some in the open.

Dashmina upazila nirbahi officer Mahmud Hasan Mridha said several rooms at the upazila parishad have been kept ready for people affected by the erosion, and those whose land has gone into the river can be allotted government khas land if they wish. Water Development Board officials have inspected the area and steps are being processed.

Residents want quick, effective and permanent erosion control alongside immediate shelter; without it, they say, the losses will grow and many families will have to start life again having lost homesteads, farmland and the places that hold their ancestors' memory. For the farming households along the Tentulia, losing land means losing the very basis of a livelihood.

Source: banglanews24