<i>Growing crack cause of concern for villagers</i>
A 300-metre-long crack has developed at Nawpara village under Mohanpur upazila of Rajshahi. According to the villagers, the crack is getting longer and deeper.Photo: STAR
A 300-metre long crack has developed at Nawpara village under Mohonpur upazila of Rajshahi district. People of all 30 houses at the village fear that their houses and farmlands may subside any time as the crack is getting longer and deeper. Experts said extraction of excessive ground water might have caused such incident at the village. While visiting the tiny Nawpara village yesterday, some 30km from Rajshahi city, this correspondent found hundreds of people from neighbouring villages and distant places were visiting the village. The villagers said they did not care the 20 feet long crack that appeared first at the mango orchard of one Taser Mia near Barnoi River a year ago. After Thursday night's nor'wester, the villagers found the crack extended. It was over one foot wide at some places while it looked like hairline at other places. This correspondent measured the length of the crack by his motorbike's mileage meter to be over 300 metres. Noor Alam, a teenaged boy, was describing the incident that occurred Saturday morning. “We heard an unfamiliar sound and later discovered a crack at the mango orchard.” The villagers said there are two deep tube-wells at the village and six others around the village for irrigating farmlands. “Whenever I look at the crack it frightens me. It seems it will devour us all,” said Rozina Begum, a housewife. When contacted, Dr Chowdhury Sarwar Jahan of geology and mining department of Rajshahi University said the crack might have developed at the village due to its location close to a river bend. Geography teacher Dr M Shamsul Alam Bir Protik said excessive extraction of underground water can result in cracks and cause land subsidence. Mohanpur Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Moinul Islam said he was unaware of the matter.
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