Breaches in Embankment
17 Batiaghata villages under fresh threat
People leaving for safer places
People of 17 villages under Batiaghata upazila of Khulna district are taking shelter at safer places as new breaches have developed in Batiaghata Protection Embankment which may collapse anytime.
Batiaghata Upazila Chairman Ashraful Alam Khan said rising water level in the Kazibacha River has put pressure on the dyke that was built two years ago at a cost of Tk 4 crore.
If the embankment collapses, 17 villages, upazila parishad office, police station, academic institutions and over 200 shops at Batiaghata Bazar will go under water, he said
The chairman stressed the need for urgent repair of the breaches of the protection embankment to save the villages, schools and Batiaghata Bazar from being flooded.
Executive Engineer of Water Development Board Md Mosaddek Hossain said government had allocated Tk 13 lakh to repair the breaches that developed in the embankment during Aila. But we are yet to receive the fund, he said.
Batiaghata UNO Kamruzzaman said bad days are ahead for over one lakh people of 17 villages as erosion by the Kazibacha River is posing threat to the dyke. It may collapse if breaches continue to develop, he added.
On the other hand, Water Development Board is yet to start construction of some damaged ring embankments of Kamarkhola, Gunari and Sutarkhali unions under Dakope upazila.
The homeless people of the unions are still in makeshift camps and passing their days without adequate food and safe drinking water.
"It is quite uncertain when the six damaged ring embankments will be constructed. Because, we have no fund for that purpose," said WDB Engineer Anwar Hossain.
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