Aila-hit embankments still await reconstruction

The Aila-hit dam in Jhapa village of Satkhira needs immediate repair as it's decaying gradually and not in the shape to withstand natural calamity anymore. Photo: Wasim Bin Habib

The victims of cyclone Aila in the worst-affected Shyamnagar and Ashashuni upazilas see no immediate respite from their sufferings as it will take a few more months to start repairing the major breaches on the damaged embankments.
The authorities concerned have made small repairs on the embankments with the help of army and locals, but the high pressure of water and strong current force them to stay away from the major breaches.
The water level has continued to drop for the last few days but river water is still pouring in many villages in the worst-hit Gabura and Padmapukur unions in Shyamnagar through the major breaches.
The Water Development Board (WDB) stopped repairing the breached dam over one and a half months ago due to a rise in water level, shortage of earth and unavailability of government allotment.
On the other hand, fresh cracks developed in the repaired points due to the high tide and heavy rains around a month and a half ago. The damaged structures further collapsed as the river mud used for repair was washed away at that time. However, some non-government organisations started repairing work at those points.
As the repairing work of the major breaches has come to a halt for over a month and a half those breaches got widened with the saline water gushing through them.
"We have lost everything in the cyclone. It destroyed our houses, furniture and livestock. If the embankment is not repaired, the remaining houses will be washed away, our existence will be at stake," says Binoy Krishna Mridha of Jhapa village in Padmapukur.
Pointing to a crack on the dam in Jhapa he informs it was only 50 feet wide when Aila lashed the region. Now the breach has been widened by at least 300 feet with 50 feet of depth, he adds.
Officials of WDB say before the lean period in December or January they cannot start the repair due to tremendous water pressure.
The officials add the entire embankments, built in the 1960s, require immediate reconstruction with new designs as these are ageing and cannot withstand natural calamity anymore.
Residents of Gabura and Padmapukur say they tried to block the raging waters by constructing ring embankments, but most of those collapsed due to pressure in the high tide.
Shafiul Azam Lenin, chairman of Gabura union, the worst-affected union in Satkhira, says they have repaired breaches at 24 out of 28 points.
He adds repairing the remaining four points -- Shora-9, Chalkbora, Jeliyakhali and Khalishabunia -- with larger cracks is beyond their capacity.
Amzad Hossain, chairman of Padmapukur union, another worst-hit area, says four larger breaches -- in Jhapa, Chandipur, Chaulkhola and Garkumarpur -- in the union could not be repaired.
He alleges they did not get adequate materials from WDB and was forced to abandon the work.
The WDB officials say they have done the repair in small breaches on a temporary basis with the help of the local administration.
Majibur Rahman, WDB executive engineer of Division-1, told The Daily Star recently that a 176-kilometre stretch of the embankments covering Kaliganj, Debhata, Shyamnagar and Satkhira Sadar was destroyed in the cyclone.
He added they have repaired the small breaches of around 31km on a temporary basis and other small points in order to tackle the situation. "We could not repair four major points in only Gabura," he said.
He admitted that the "repaired portions also suffered badly in the new-moon-tide wasting a handsome amount of money." They have done the repair work in exchange of 1,580 tonnes of food grains under the "food for work" programme, he informed.
Shahabuddin Ahmmed, WDB executive engineer of Division-2, said they have done the repair in Ashashuni, a part of Shyamnagar and a part of Koyara in Khulna with allocation of 2,500 tonnes of food grains.
He added they could not repair four large points in Pratapnagar and Padmapukur unions.
Satkhira Deputy Commissioner (DC) Abdus Samad said all the repairing work was done on emergency basis and the dams need permanent repair with new technology as the water level is rising.
He said the two divisions of WDB spent around 3,100 tonnes food grains for repairing the dams. Besides, the divisions received Tk 2 crore each for purchasing the dam repairing materials, he mentioned.
A WDB team from Dhaka has recently assessed the damaged portion in the embankments and estimated that Tk 169 crore is needed to repair the dams permanently.
Talking to The Daily Star, Food Minister Dr Abdur Razzaque said they are hopeful the repairing work will be completed before April next year.

REASONS BEHIND EMBANKMENT COLLAPSE
Opinions from the government officials and local people varied as to why such a large stretch of the embankments collapsed in a day.
Most of them put the blame on shrimp farmers who had created holes on the embankment to pipe in salt water from the coastal rivers into their hatcheries. The shrimp enclosures even built small sluice gates to pump in salt waters, weakening the main structure.
They also blamed it on a poorly built and maintained embankment by the authorities over the decades. Moreover, the authorities did not do proper repair in the past to plunder the money, the locals added.
The WDB officials say the damaged parts of the dams were under water for over 16-20 hours after the cyclone which caused the collapse.

CORRUPTION IN REPAIRING
A significant number of the victims talked about corruption in the repairing work. They allege they did not get the rice they were supposed to get from the repairing work under the "food for work" programme.
They allege the chairmen and members of the union parishads and WDB officials ate up a large portion of the rice meant for repair work.
Yusuf Ali Sardar of Shora-9 in Gabura says hundreds of villagers did not get rice though they laboured hard to repair the dams.
On the other hand, several chairmen claim there is no scope of any anomalies as the entire work was supervised by the army. They say the villagers would never admit of getting rice.
Padmapukur union Chairman Amzad Hossain blames the WDB officials for not giving the rice.
"The board did not give the due rice as only 532 tonnes of rice was distributed, while 1,042 tonnes was allocated," he says.
Many members left their homes in fear of attack as the villagers think they embezzled the rice, he adds.
Shahabuddin Ahmmed of WDB denies the allegation saying the entire work was done through representatives of the local government and under the supervision of the army.