Padma water keeps rising in Rajshahi
A small portion of T-groyen dam in Rajshahi city's Sreerampur area was washed away due to strong current in the Padma yesterday. The river water continued to rise.
However, flood situation in Kushtia slightly improved yesterday as water of the river was flowing around 4cm below than that on Saturday.
“Some bricks of right part of the T-groyen were washed away around 8:00am after the steel net over the dam got loose due to strong current," reports our Rajshahi correspondent, quoting Mahabub Rasel, an on-duty section officer of the dam.
Later, staffers of Water Development Board (WDB) in Rajshahi repaired the damaged part by dumping around 150 sandbags there, said Rasel, adding that about 500 sandbags were kept ready near the dam to deal with any bad situation.
"The dam is now safe," he claimed.
The WDB sealed the T-groyen area and prohibited public gathering in and around it. Police were deployed near the dam gate to check people's entrance.
The river water was flowing around 4cm below the danger level yesterday noon, said WDB officials.
On August 22, the Padma water began to rise after India started releasing water through the Farakka Barrage to tackle their flood situation in Bihar, according to the WDB.
The swelling Padma water entered the city's Fudkipara through a drain connected with the river yesterday, flooding Martyr Suresh Pandey Road.
The river water also inundated some of the city's recreation centers like Simante Obokash, Simante Nongor, Padma Garden, Shimla Park and Lalon Shah Mancha.
The flood situation in Bagha upazila is the worst. Some 10,000 people of Chalkrajapur union of the upazila were affected by flood.
Mokhlesur Rahman, executive engineer of Rajshahi WDB, said the water level increased by 6 centimetres in the last 24 hours and it remained static at 18.46 metres since the morning.
“When the rise of water stops, it will recede quickly within days as the Jamuna is flowing much below the danger level," he said.
Our Kushtia correspondent adds, according to WDB sources, water flowing in the Padma was recorded at 14.03cm at Hardinge Bridge point in Bheramara around 3:30pm yesterday. It was 14.07cm around 2:00pm Saturday.
WDB sources added that sudden rise of water level in the river left around 60,000 people in 30 villages of Daulatpur upazila marooned on Friday.
It has been primarily estimated that crops of around 1,800 hectares of land went under water.
Toufiqur Rahman, Daulatpur upazila nirbahi officer, said the local administration allocated 20 metric tonnes of rice to Ramkrishnapur union, whose 20,000 people were hit by the sudden flood.