Erosion renders over 1 lakh homeless in 10yrs
Unabated erosions by the Brahmaputra, Teesta, Dharla, Dudhkumar and Gangadhar rivers rendered more than one lakh people homeless in Kurigram in the last 10 years.
According to the data provided by the District Relief and Rehabilitation Office, Water Development Board (WDB), Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) and Education Office (EO), since 2013 sixteen small and large rivers, including the Brahmaputra, Teesta, Dharla, Dudhkumar and Gangadhar, have so far devoured more than 30,000 homesteads.
Moreover, about 40,000 acres of farmland, 190 educational institutions, 20 community clinics and 0ver 300 mosques, madrasas and temples have gone into the wombs of those rivers in the last 10 years.
It is regrettable that at least 55 out of 76 unions in the district have been badly affected by river erosions.
Besides, many of the affected families have left their respective villages and shifted to different other areas, while the others took shelters on different roads, flood control dykes and government khas lands.
People once associated with agriculture had to adopt various other professions for livelihoods.
Majmul Islam of Porarchar area in Kurigram Sadar upazila said about 300 families used to live in the same locality for nearly 30 years.
But within two years, all the families gradually lost their dwellings and arable land and became homeless due to erosion by the Brahmaputra river, he lamented.
Abdul Hai Sarkar, district relief and rehabilitation officer, said on an average about 3,000 erosion-hit families are being rehabilitated every year.
Erosion has now become a major reason of poverty in all the upazilas of the district, he added.
Kurigram WDB Executive Engineer Abdullah Al Mamun said river erosion is a silent natural disaster that occurs every year. In the last 10 years, nearly Tk 1,500 crores have been spent to prevent the district from erosions, he said.
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