Around 50 people and 15 homesteads were washed into the Jamuna River in Sirajganj district on Thursday night after 400 metres of a flood protection embankment collapsed only a year after it was built.
“We are suffering a crisis due to the Jamuna River flood prevention embankment erosion,” Chauhali UNO (Acting) Anisur Rahman said. “There is panic among local people due to the continuous erosion.”
The acting UNO said that at least 15 people had died due to the erosion in the past year alone. “Their bodies floated ashore on embankment,” he said.
According to Sirajganj Water Development Board and Tangail Water Development Board, a 7-km flood protection embankment was constructed in 2017 to protect the Simhanti area of Chowhali Sadar upazila and Tangail from the erosion of the Jamuna River.
On Thursday night, however, the western part of the flood protection embankment in Chowhali upazila collapsed, dumping around 50 people into the water who then had to swim to the riverbank to save their lives.
On Friday morning, Anisur Rahman sent a report regarding the intensity and impacts of breakdown of flood protection embankment in the area in the past one year
Tangail Water Development Board Executive Engineer Masudur Rahman said that after hearing about the matter, sandbags have been dumped to protect the embankment. Locals were also being moved from their houses.