Furious Padma devours over 20 homesteads in Harirampur
Over 20 families have lost their homesteads and vast areas of cropland as the erosion of Padma has taken a serious turn in two-kilometre-long stretch on the riverside area of Kanchanpur in Manikganj's Harirampur upazila in the last three weeks.
Of the 20 affected families, 13 are in Kushiar Char village, four are in Kotkandi village and the rest are in Mohammadpur village.
On a recent visit to the affected areas, the trail of devastation left by a furious Padma was seen.
The villagers besieged a boat carrying the WDB official and local AL leaders and demanded that the authorities construct a permanent dam there to save them.
They said, "We don't want relief, we want a permanent dam."
Gazi Bani Islam of Kutirhat village said that "Many houses and vast areas of croplands are going into the riverbed every year. Some GEO bags are dumped when the erosion takes a serious turn, which cannot save the areas from erosion."
"We need permanent embankment to save the areas," he added.
Salam Chowdhury, a member of Manikganj District Council, said, "Majority portion of the union has already been washed away in the river and more than two hundred homes and many institutions of the union are now under threat of being devoured by the river. There is no alternative to construct a permanent dam to save the union from the erosion."
Executive Engineer of Manikganj Water Development Board (WDB) Md Main Uddin said, 'We dumped GEO bags in 700-metre-long area of Maluchi village to save it from the impact of erosion. But we failed to save it due to strong current of the Padma. We have a plan to construct a permanent dam there in future.'
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