Flood makes vast farmland sandy

Around 1,000 acres of land in Dimla upazila beside the Teesta river have turned barren as a new channel of the Teesta opened up during the flood in 2016 and left a three feet to four feet high layer of sand on the land.

More than 10,000 people of seven villages in Tepa Kharibari union have been passing their days in untold suffering for the last two years due to loss of the land and jobs, compelling hundreds of families to migrate to distant villages.

“Whim of the Teesta is responsible for the adverse situation as its unwanted channel found its way through Purbo Kharibari, Char Kharibari, Uttar Kharibari, Jhinjirpar, Tapur Char, Mehertari and Dangapara villages during the flood of 2016,” said Tepa Kharibari Union Parishad (UP) Chairman Rabiul Islam Shahin.

“The new one-km-wide channel flowed through the villages for 10-km to meet the main river again near Teesta Barrage. When the water receded, it was found that a three feet to four feet high layer of sand had covered a four-square km area, turning around 1,000 hectares of cultivable land into a desert constituting about 50 percent area of the villages,” he added.

“This unprecedented calamity affected 2,380 families of farmers and compelled 300 families to migrate to other villages,” Shahin said.

“I was shocked as the sand covered my 20 bighas of fertile land overnight. Now I have only two bighas that are not affected,” said Jonab Ali, 60, of Purbo Kharibari village.

Abdus Samad, 60, said he used to cultivate crops on 20 bighas of land, but the land is buried under sand, adding that he is worried as he cannot pay for the education of his son, who is studying for a diploma in marine engineering in Narayanganj.

Several hundred families have migrated to other villages or are living on different structures of Water Development Board (WDB) at Dalia.

“I had 10 bighas of fertile land, but thick sand layer ruined it, making me a beggar overnight. Now I maintain my family by pulling rickshaw van,” said Shahar Kha, 55, who migrated to Dalia village with his five-member family and is living on WDB's silt trap.

“We get reports of damage caused by different kinds of calamities, but not about sand covering agriculture land,” said district Relief and Rehabilitation Officer AKM Akhtaruzzaman.

 “The situation was caused by flood and we'll arrange houses in our new cluster villages for the victims who migrated to different places,” said Dimla Upazila Nirbahi Officer Nazmunnahar.