Incessant downpour wreaks havoc in Chandpur

CHANDPUR, Oct 08: Farmers suffered irrevocable losses as downpour has left a trail of devastation in roads, culverts, houses, Aman paddy and vegetable fields in Chandpur district in recent days.
Besides, a lot of playgrounds and premises of schools, colleges and mad-rasas are still under rain waters as waters remain stagnant on the premises due to water logging.
According to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), Chandpur, as per the target, Aman paddy and vegetables were cultivated on 21,788 hectares of land in the entire district in the current season.
But the targeted yield is unlikely to be achieved as the rain-induced flooding hit the district dashing the hopes and dreams of the farmers.
It is learnt, 60 per cent Aman crops and vegetable fields were affected badly by this natural calamity.
Standing Aman paddy on 1,347 hectares and vegetable fields on 107 hectares of land in the district have been damaged badly by waterlogging resulting from excessive rainfall that occurred on October 4 and 5 last.
A few farmers including Hanif Patwary, Mangal Khan, Babul Gazi and Ayub Khan of Ashikathi and Shah Mahmudpur areas under Sadar upazila told the FE that they all were worried about the prospect of Aman paddy and early-variety winter vegetables.
They said due to this season's excessive rainfall, they suffered financial loss thrice as their Aman seedbeds were damaged by waterlogging following heavy rainfall.
On the other hand, a big portion of Chandpur Natunbazar-Puranbazar Connecting Bridge (over the Dakatia River) collapsed at the approach road in the town in the early hours of Saturday because of incessant rainfall overnight on Friday and in the early morning on Saturday.
It is an awfully busy connecting bridge, used round the clock to go to Puranbazar, a busy and bustling business hub of the district since British period where the wholesale shops register around Tk 100 million transaction from morning till night daily on an average.
Several thousand local people and businessmen also use this bridge to go to Haimchar, Faridganj , Roypur and Luxmipur upazilas.
According to the Local Weather Observatory Centre's chief weatherman Shah Md Shoyeb, it rained 277 mm on Friday, the country's highest this rainy season.
This abnormal rain has submerged most areas and playgrounds of schools and colleges in the town. So the children can neither play nor attend assembly before their classes, said Shologhar Government Primary School's Headmaster Mos-tafa Kamal and teachers of Hasan Ali Government Primary School.
During the prolonged rainfall, the large part of the approach road of the Connecting Bridge at Puranbazar collapsed creating serious hazards for the commuters and vehicles-said the suffering drivers and people.
Local people hanged red flags to alert the people and vehicles about this danger zone.
Till filing this report, no concrete steps were taken in this regard by the local Roads & Highways Department office.
On the other hand, due to water-logging caused by heavy downpour on October 4 and 5 last, around 100 families in Nij Ghasstola village- on the outskirts of Chandpur town, were seriously affected.
Besides, some newly-constructed tin-shed houses along with boundary walls have collapsed into the adjacent canal.
Despite their best possible efforts, local people could not to save the walls and houses from collapse at the last moment, said Shah Alam Gazi, Telu Gazi and Delwar Gazi and a few others with tears rolling down from their eyes.
A rough estimate shows that the owners have suffered loss of approximately Tk two million (20 lakh).
Meanwhile, far away from Chandpur town, due to the heavy rainfall for the past few days , busy Bayek Bazar Road in Sachar union of Kachua upazila has been damaged causing inconvenience to the commuters and drivers of several hundred vehicles.
The 5-km awfully busy road runs from Bayekbazar up to Kalashona Maligaon of the upazila.
Locals said the situation becomes worst in the dark of night when people have to use this road during emergency at the time of going to the local health complex.

[email protected]