Rivers Overflow Due to Tidal Surge
20 Dakope villages flooded for breach in embankments
Twenty villages in Kamarkhola and Sutarkhali unions under Dakope upazila of Khulna district went under water in last two days as tidal surge overflowing Bhadra and Shibsha rivers caused breach of four embankments constructed by WAPDA.
As a result, members of over 700 families, mostly farmers, fishermen, bawalis (honey collectors), woodcutters and day labourers, of the 20 villages became homeless and hundreds of acres of land went under knee-deep water.
The embankments, earlier damaged by cyclonic storm Aila and accompanying tidal surges on May 25 last year, were not properly repaired, locals said.
The situation has added to the sufferings of the people of these 20 villages who are yet to recover from the ravages caused by Aila, said Dakope Upazila Nirbahi Officer Kazi Atiur Rahman.
Thirteen villages of Kamarkhola union went under water due to collapse of three embankments on Monday evening while seven more villages of Sutarkhali union faced the same situation as another embankment collapsed early yesterday, said the UNO.
The inundated villages are -- Srinagar, Parjoynagar, Shaharabad, Jaliakhali, Bhitebhanga, Rajnagar, Rekhamari, Joynagar, Channirchawk, Kalinagar, Satgharia, Shibnagar and Fakirhdanga of Kamarkhola union are and Gunari, Katabunia, Maddhom Gunari, Kalibari, Purbo Gunari, Golbunia and Nalian of Sutarkhali union.
Dakope upazila parishad Chairman Sheikh Abul Hossain said the embankments collapsed as Water Development Board (WDB) had not taken any positive step to properly repair the breaches that developed due to the onslaught of cyclone Aila and tidal surges of May 25 last year.
WAPDA showed pretexts of fund shortage and different official formalities for not properly repairing the embankments, he said.
When asked, engineer Md Anwar Hossain of WAPDA told this correspondent yesterday that he had asked twice for necessary allocation of fund from higher authorities after submitting an official report in detail on the condition of damaged embankments.
"But we got only Tk 1 crore instead of Tk 10 crore which was asked for. As a result, no contractor wanted to work for doing repair works with this scanty amount of money although tenders were invited thrice," he said.
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