Around 10,000 houses in 419 unions of the country were damaged by Cyclone Sitrang when it lashed coastal districts early Tuesday, State Minister for Disaster Management and Relief Md Enamur Rahman has said.
Sitrang did not turn into a severe cyclone and crossed the coastal area very quickly, the state minister said while talking to reporters at the Secretariat regarding the aftermath of the cyclone.
“We have been able to provide shelter to one million people in 6,925 cyclone shelters. The cyclone weakened quickly after hitting the coastal districts at 10pm,” said Enamur.
People have already left the shelters, he added.
However, locals in Khulna were in a state of panic ahead of the cyclone after a long stretch of Koyra's Harinkhola embankment tumbled into the Kopotakkho River.
Anarul Islam, the owner of a fish enclosure in Harinkhola, was the first person to see the embankment collapse on Monday.
The people of Khulna, Satkhira, and Bagerhat coasts often have to face such situations, as over 240km of the 2,000km embankment pose risks, according to the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB).
There are 1,910km of embankments in Khulna, Bagerhat and Satkhira districts. Originally, these embankments were 14 feet high and 14 feet wide when they were built in the 1960s.
Focus BanglaThe height and width of this 240km embankment are now less than half of what they once were.
Koyra Union Parishad member Abul Kalam Sheikh said the local mosque had sounded the alarm as the embankment was coming apart.
“The villagers joined hands to repair the dam when they heard the news. They were trying their best to raise the embankment until the tide became stronger in the afternoon,” he added.
He also said: “With the voluntary efforts of the common people, we were able to stop the salt water of the tidal basin from coming in. However, unless urgent action is taken by the authorities, the embankment will break at any moment and flood the entire area.”
Sixty-six-year-old Abdul Hakeem Sheikh said many people who lost their homes and belongings during cyclone Aila were still looking for permanent homes.
“Many had chosen the edge of the embankment to stay on, and their condition is now fragile,” he noted.
Meanwhile, residents of Ghatakhali area of Koyra said that the embankment, which is currently protecting the people of the area from tidal water is the fifth one, as the previous four have collapsed already.
Half a million people of the neighbouring two unions, including Koyra Sadar, will be in danger if this embankment collapses, they told this correspondent.
Koyra Upazila Nirbahi Officer Md Roknuzzaman said local volunteers and villagers are trying to repair the embankment. However, the tidal surge of the Kopotakkho and Shakbaria rivers is increasing with the passage of time.
Koyra Upazila Parishad Chairman SM Shafiqul Islam said people are more worried about the embankment collapse than the cyclone itself.
“If the river water rises, the embankment will surely break in many places. Even though the government allocated funds to build a strong and sustainable embankment here, the work is yet to start,” he added.
Meanwhile, two villages under Bagerhat Sadar upazila were flooded as a flood protection dam along the Bhairab River collapsed due to the heavy pressure of the tidal surge, rendering several hundred people of Majhidanga and Polghat villages marooned.
Besides, 1,200 thatched houses were damaged and a number of trees were uprooted during the storm.
Cyclonic Sitrang crossed the Barishal-Chittagong coast near Bhola around midnight on Monday but weakened rapidly into a depression, the weather department said in a bulletin Tuesday.
