Flood situation deteriorates in three districts

The flood situation deteriorated in Kurigarm, Gaibandha and Sirajganj due to rise of water levels in major rivers following onrush of water from the upstream yesterday.

The Dudhkumar River was flowing above danger level (DL) by 15cm at Pateshwari, Dharla by 32cm in Kurigram and Brahmaputra by 20cm at Chilmari points in Kurigram district at 9 am, reports our Kurigram correspondent.

Manjurul Haque, deputy director of the Kurigram Agriculture Extension Department, said about 10,000 hectares of Aman fields and 75 hectares of vegetable fields have been submerged so far as river water continues to rise.

The Jamuna was flowing above the DL by 2cm at Bahadurabad in Jamalpur, 22cm at Sariakandi in Bogura district and 17 at Kazipur and 26cm above the DL at Sirajganj points in Sirajganj district at 9 am, reports BSS.

Due to sharp rise in water levels, the Teesta was flowing below the DL by only 8cm at Kawnia point in Rangpur, Ghaghot by 29cm at Gaibandha and Jamuna was flowing at the DL at Fulchhari points in Gaibandha district at 9 am.

Chief Engineer for Rangpur zone of BWDB Engineer Jyoti Prosad Ghosh said water levels of major rivers might continue to rise during the next 48 hours to further deteriorate the flood situation in the Brahmaputra basin.

“We have taken early preparedness to face any situation during possible floods in all eight districts of Rangpur division under BWDB’s Rangpur zone from where no incident of breaching of flood control embankments was reported so far,” he said.

To conduct repairing works and management of flood control embankments on an emergency basis when and where needed, all 12 divisions of three circles of BWBD’s Rangpur zone have taken all necessary preparations.

“We are continuing repair works of erosion-prone riverside banks and ready to do the same for flood control structures alongside the major rivers in Rangpur zone spending Tk 62 crore for the “season flood” this year,” Ghosh said.

BWDB’s Executive Engineers Mokhlesur Rahman for Gaibandha and Ariful Islam for Kurigram said all flood control embankments and structures are remaining safe in the two districts although some sporadic incidents of erosions were reported from few places.

Executive Engineer of the Flood Forecasting and Warning Center (FFWC) of BWDB at Dhaka, Engineer M Arifuzzaman Bhuiyan said the Brahmaputra- Jamuna river systems were in rising trend which might continue in the next 48 hours in the Brahmaputra basin.