Commuters suffer as key road partly devoured by erosion

A large portion of a paved road in Paishka union under Dhanbari upazila has gone to the riverbed, disrupting communication and causing sufferings of the people.

The road passing beside the Bairan river connects three unions--Paishka, Musuddi and Birtara. As a large portion of the road at Bhatkura village has already gone to the riverbed recently, plying of heavy vehicles has stopped on the road and local farmers and traders are suffering to carry their goods including the agricultural products to their destinations.

Although people are crossing the narrowed stretch of the road by rickshaws and vans, an accident can happen any moment.

Locals said that erosion hit the road few months ago during excavation of the river and later the erosion intensified after the start of the rainy season.

"It has turned very risky to move through the damaged road," said Belal Hossain of the village.

Azmat Ali of the same area said although local people can move on their feet and by rickshaw through the damaged portion taking risk, all sorts of movement becomes impossible at night.

"The road is still eroding and the whole road can be devoured by the river any moment. If this happens, road communication of the three unions will stop causing sufferings for thousands of people," said Rabiul Islam, an assistant teacher of Paishka High School.

"The authorities should take necessary measures immediately to resolve the problem," he added.

Fazila Begum, a member of the Paishka Union Parishad, blamed unplanned excavation of the river by the Water Development Board (WDB) without coordination of the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) as the main reason behind the erosion of the important road.

Local people alleged that although the very important road is being devoured by the river in front of all the concerned departments, none of them have any headache over the matter. No measures including dumping of some sand bags to prevent the erosion further have been taken yet, they said. 

Asked about the matter, Arif Bazlu, chairman of Paishka Union Parishad, said he has already talked to the upazila engineer and concerned authorities and requested them to start the protective works as early as possible.

"A side of the paved road of about 150-metre stretch has already gone to the riverbed. The damage will increase more if necessary step is not taken immediately to check the erosion," he said.

Contacted, Joynal Abedin, upazila engineer of LGED in Dhanbari, said that the road was damaged as the river excavation works were done without keeping earth beside the road. 

"Now it is not possible to do the reform works as the river is now full of water. The works can be done after the water level recedes," he added.