People of Baruria and Krisnanagar villages under Sailkupa upazila in Jhenaidah are passing days in anxiety apprehending that woes are waiting for them in the coming days.
Residents of the villages are afraid that like previous years, many homesteads might go under the Gorai River this year, as the Water Development Board is yet to build a permanent embankment to save them from erosion.
Local sources said a good portion of Baruria and Krisnanagar villages had been eroded in the mighty river, leaving around 300 families homeless over the last five decades.
Most of the erosion-affected people have taken shelter on the river bank, but they fear if the river bank is eroded they would not have any place to take shelter.
They said an embankment might stop the erosion of the river.
A member of Sarutia union parishad under Sailkupa upazila said they were told that the Bangladesh Water Development Board (WDB) would put concrete blocks to stop erosion. But the work is yet to be started.
The ward member said if dredging would be done in the river, erosion could be stopped permanently.
Executive Engineer of the WDB in Jhenaidah Abdul Latif said a team of the Asian Development Board had visited the affected area in Sarutia union under Sailkupa upazila a few months back.
The WDB had suggested to put concrete blocks to stop the erosion permanently. Then, the ADB assured the WDB that they would provide fund for the work.
“But we have not received any allocation from the ADB yet,” he said.
Moreover, the locals said a shoal had emerged on the northern bank of the river, but some local influential people have illegally occupied the shoal, depriving the actual homeless people.
Salamat Sheikh, 43, a resident of village Baruria, said at least 11 bighas of their ancestral land were eroded by the river in the last 40 years.
A number of people of Baruria village had tried to settle in the shoal which has now become a part of Mukshidpur area under Khoksha upazila in Kushtia.
But Ekdil Bahini chief Ekdil Hossain along with his supporters had forced the erosion-affected people to leave the area. Being instigated by Ekdil Hossain, residents of Mukshidpur, Bhabanipur and Bamanpara villages also swooped on them. Finding no alternative, inhabitants of Baruria and Krisnanagar villages left the area, fearing life risks.
Ayub Ali, 45, a resident of Krisnanagar said, deputy commissioners of Jhenaidah and Kushtia, along with the superintendent of police of the districts had sat to resolve the crisis.
They came to a decision that the persons whose land, according to land office map, would emerge on the northern bank of the river in Khoksha upazila would get their land. But, the people of Khoksha upazila could not be satisfied with the decision.