The people living along the bank of the Teesta river are losing their cropland and homesteads as erosion has taken serious turn in the district recently.
According to sources, due to a heavy current caused by the newly emerged shoals in the river, erosion returned and rendered more people homeless.
Erosion by the Teesta River demolished 60 more houses, a flood shelter, several hectares of crop lands and a 50 meter stretch of the number 6 cross dam near the Dangrarhaat Bazar area in Rajarhat upazila in Kurigram over the last three days, and threatened to demolish more villages, as sandbags dumped by Kurigram Water Development Board (WDB) was not sufficient for protecting the villages from erosion.
Gabur Helan Primary School, which is also a flood shelter, along with eight more educational institutions, several mosques and Dangrarhaat Adarsha Bazar were under the imminent threat of erosion.
Rahima Begum, 60, from Majhapara vilage in Gabur Helan area of the district said she had to move her house three times because of the recurring river bank erosion, and she would have nowhere else to go if Teesta washes away the embankment again.
Montaz Ali, 70, from Paramoula area complained that erosion devoured his houses three times this year, which forced him to take shelter in another man’s land. He also expressed his anger over the negligence on the government’s part during their time of miseries.
Sub-divisional Engineer of Kurigram WDB Ali Amjad told the Dhaka Tribune that the heavy current which was eroding the river bank was caused by the newly emerged shoals in the middle of the river. He also said WDB had dumped 600 sandbags, and was prepared to dump more, but lack of funds was restraining them from taking more fruitful measures to save Paramoula and Mandir villages.
Rajarhaat Upazila Nirbahi Officer Md Sajedur Rahman said Bidyananda union might get washed away if measures to stop erosion were not taken immediately. He sent a proposal regarding the matter to the high ups, the UNO added.