8 Bagerhat villages under erosion threat

With the erosion by the Baleswar river taking a serious turn, 300 metres of an embankment collapsed in Southkhali union of Sharankhola upazila, inundating a vast track of croplands in the last three days.

The river devoured 300 metres of embankment in front of Ashar Alo Mosque cyclone shelter of the Water Development Board (WDB) and 10 bighas of cropland went under water at Dakkhin Shoutkhali village in the upazila.

At least eight villages in the union are now under threat of erosion due to collapse of the embankment.

If an embankment is not constructed there immediately, the villages will go under water anytime as the erosion by the river is going on unabated, said locals.

At least five shops and hundreds of trees were devoured by the river during the time.

During a visit to the area, this correspondent found many villagers shifting their houses to safer places in fear of further erosion.

Meanwhile, Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Lincoln Biswas visited the area.

Southkhali Union Parishad Chairman Mozammel Hossain said, ‘‘The people of the Coastal Embankment Improvement Project (CIP) have been building one embankment after another without planning. As a result, the embankment of Bogi area has been affected seriously. Because of this, people in the area are suffering.”

The UNO said he informed CIP authorities about the embankment collapse.

Shyamal Dutta, engineer of CIP, said they will reconstruct the embankment as soon as possible.