Home ›› 26 May 2022 ›› Nation
Many low-lying areas of Bogura, Gaibandha, Kurigram, and Chapainawbganj have been inundated as the major rivers witness a substantial rise.
According to local sources, about 412 hectares of cropland went underwater in the Kurigram district on Monday morning.
According to the Kurigram Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), Boro farmers exceeded the target this season and cultivated paddy on 116,120 hectares of land in the district.
A sudden onrush has flooded about 265 hectares of Boro crop fields in the district’s lower reaches, said Kurigram DAE Deputy Director Abdur Rashid.
Farmers had harvested 83% of their paddy before the flood struck, he added.
Besides, 65 hectares of jute, 10 hectares of sesame, and 12 hectares of vegetables have also been submerged.
Abed Ali, a farmer of Panchgachhi union in Kurigram Sadar upazila, said, “Two and a half acres of ripe paddy have been submerged in floodwater. Though the paddy was harvested with extra labour, half of the paddy was wasted.”
Meanwhile, in Bogura, a ring dam built to protect the flood control embankment has collapsed due to the rising water level in the Jamuna River at Dhunat upazila on Tuesday afternoon.
About 95 metres of the ring dam in the Pukhuria area of the upazila collapsed into the riverbed. Earlier, the embankment of the Jamuna River had also been breached.
The water level of the river flowed at 15.58 cm at Shahrabari Ghat point on Monday afternoon. The danger level has been set at 16.70 cm.
According to local sources, the ring dam was constructed in 2019 to protect the flood control embankment from Pukhuria in Dhunat upazila to Dhekuria in Kazipur upazila. However, during the rainy season of 2021, a crack in a section of the ring dam appeared.
Bogura District Water Development Board Deputy Assistant Engineer Nibaran Chakrabarty said due to rising water and excess currents in the Jamuna, the embankment of Dhunat upazila of Bogura has been eroded.
Homes, arable lands, and flood control dams are all at risk, according to locals, but the Water Development Board has yet to take action to stop the erosion.
Damaged places have been inspected. These will be repaired urgently, said Nibaran Chakrabarty.
Due to continuous erosion, about 100 meters of the embankment in the Pukuria-Bhootbari area were destroyed on May 19. On Monday, another 60 metres in the area went into the riverbed. Around 180 meters of the embankment have vanished in the same location. The dam area is under threat of erosion. People living along the river fear losing their homes.
Abdur Razzak of Pukuria village said, “The erosion is coming rapidly towards settlements and dams. If action is not taken immediately to prevent erosion, at any time hundreds of houses, including my house, will be washed away by the river.”
Abu Rayhan, Executive Engineer of Gaibandha Water Development Board, said the water level in the Brahmaputra River continues to rise in the Fulchhari upazila due to continuous rain.
The erosion of the river is increasing. Most of the erosion has been reported in the Uraiya union of Fulchhari upazila, Bhubaneswar, Dariyarvatia and Erandobari union, Jagiabari, Sannyasir Char, Nayar and other villages in the area.
Golam Mostafa Kamal Pasha, chairman of the Uraiya union council, said, “River erosion is a major problem for the people of the area. Every year, many people lose homesteads and croplands due to erosion.”
The onrush of water from India through the Punarbhaba submerged 475 hectares of cropland in the Radhanagar union of Chapainawabganj, confirmed Md Nazrul Islam, deputy director of the district DAE.
