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Flash floods triggered by onrush of water from the upstream inundated Boro crops on 5,000 hectares of land in 14 haors in Sunamganj, causing loss of Tk 100 crore, according to the local agricultural office.
Meanwhile, local farmers claimed some 20,000 hectares of land were inundated until Friday evening.
According to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), farmers yield six tonnes of paddy per hectare of land.
As per the DAE estimate, 1.20 lakh tonnes of paddy worth Tk 300 crore could have been produced from the land that went under water, claimed local farmers.
Haor is a wetland ecosystem in the north eastern part of Bangladesh which physically is a bowl or saucer shaped shallow depression, also known as a back swamp. During monsoon, haors get filled with surface runoff water becoming vast stretches of turbulent water.
According to the local DAE office, Boro paddy has been cultivated on 2.22 lakh hectares of land in the district this year and the production target has been set at 13.50 lakh tonnes.
In a recent visit, the UNB correspondent found local people working day and night voluntarily to protect the local dams. Although rain reduced in the haor areas, water level in rivers was rising in some upazilas, including Dirai and Shalla, of Sunamganj.
On April 2, crops of Tanguar haor went under water at first after the Najarkhali dam collapsed.
Since then eight dams collapsed one by one and cracks have been developed in all small and big dams due to the pressure of upstream water.
On Friday, water started flooding Eraliakona Haor in Tahirpur.
Locals said five haors, including Chandra Sonartal Haor in Dharmapasha, Tangni Haor in Dirai and Chapati Haor, went under water after the collapse of dams.
Bimal Chandra Som, deputy director of Sunamganj DAE, said water is entering the haors through broken dams and overflowing those in some places.
“The showers have reduced in the last two days. If no more rain occurs, there will be no major damage,” he added.
