‘Afraid of losing it all over again’
In just one month, the sand-filled geo bags, dumped to prevent river erosion in Teesta shoal, are washing away.
The bags were dumped recently to prevent river erosion at Purbo Kalmati village of Khuniagach Union in Lalmonirhat Sadar Upazila.
Locals, however, alleged of gross irregularities in the process and said if this continues the river bank will start to erode.
They further alleged that geo bags were filled with less sand and dumped abruptly. They also asked the Water Development Board (WDB) officials to explain the situation, but to no avail.
Monnaf Ali of Purbo Kalmati village, said, "The number of geo bags used were way less than what was originally promised."
Because of this, within a short period of time, the bags are washing away into the river.
"Due to river erosion, my home and arable land has already been eaten up by the Teesta. Now my family has been living in another piece of land by the river bank. I'm afraid of losing everything all over again," he said.
A worried Rupali Begum of the same village, said the erosion has stopped for now, but if the water level rises, it may recur. The government spends a lot of money to dump sand-filled bags to prevent erosion, but due to irregularities, the erosion continues.
Contacted, sub-divisional engineer of Lalmonirhat WDB Abdul Quader said 5,500 geo bags were dumped in Purbo Kalmati village at a cost of Tk 30 lakh. This has stopped river erosion for now, he said.
However, Mizanur Rahman, executive engineer of Lalmonirhat WDB, said they haven't finished dumping all the geo bags to prevent erosion yet. Some geo bags have washed away due to rising water levels. New ones will be dumped at these places soon, he added.
"Erosion is temporarily prevented by dumping geo bags. We're formulating a plan for a permanent solution," he said.
Both the officials denied allegations of mismanagement and irregularities in this regard.
Comments