Hill water from across border floods Sunamganj boro fields
WDB yet to complete work on embankments
Locals desperately try to repair the breached portion of the embankment at Katakhali on Thal haor (water body) in Chandrasona under Dharmapasha upazila in Sunamganj district to save their boro crops from flooding.Photo: STAR
Standing boro crops on over 10,000 acres of land in Derai, Tahirpur and Dharmapasha upazilas of Sunamganj district submerged due to onrush of water from the bordering Meghalayan hills during last three days. The farmers of Sunamganj district are passing time amid worry as the Water Development Board (WDB) is yet to complete the work on the protection embankments in different upazilas of the district. Farmers in Companiganj, Gowainghat and Jaintapur upazilas of Sylhet district are also worried about possible early flooding and loss of boro crops. Several hundred acres of croplands went under water following reaches on Potua embankment, said Anwar Hossain of Kodomtala in Gowainghat upazila. This year there was no work for protecting the 'crop saving' embankments in Tahirpur upazila, where already 3,000 acres of croplands had already been inundated, said Uttar Sripur union Parishad Chairman Amir Uddin. In Derai upazila, about 5000 acres of land in Udgal haor went under water as breaches developed on the sluice gate at Ghilakutia on Tuesday and yesterday. In the neighbouring Dharmapasha upazila 2,000 acres of cropland went under water after breaches developed in Katakhali embankment on Chandrasonarthal haor during the last two days. Locals joined work to repair the breaches with bamboos and sand bags. The WDB was given Tk 20.1 crore for reconstruction and repair of the 221 km embankments in Sunamganj district this year. The work to protect boro croplands inside 37 haors in the district began through 258 Project Implementation Committees (PIC) formed with the locals. After expiry of the February 28 deadline for completing the work, the time was extended twice, giving March 31 as the last deadline. Contacted, the executive engineer of the WDB in Sunamganj, Shailen Chandra Das told this correspondent on Wednesday afternoon, "About 80 per cent of the work has been done. Due to inundation in some areas during the last few days, work had to be suspended. In some areas it may not be possible to resume the task." He refuted the allegation of large-scale irregularities in the project works this year. Most of the crop fields in the haors of Sunamganj district went under water during the period from March 25 to April 20 last year, causing damage to boro crops worth Tk 1127 crore on 193,000 hectares of land, according to the DAE reports. Large-scale corruption by contractors employed to repair and reconstruct embankments and others concerned alongside delay in the work were blamed for the crop loss. "Almost every year the people face the same problem and lose their only crop of the year. The government should take stern measures against those responsible for the project failure," Sunamganj Unnayan Sangram Parishad convener freedom fighter Bazlul Mazid Chowdhury said.
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