Teesta, Someshwari erosion takes severe turn

OUR CORRESPONDENTS
River erosion, devouring a number of households and farmlands, has taken a serious turn in different parts of the country.
The erosion is turning worst especially in Lalmonirhat and Netrakona due to strong current in the Teesta and Someshwari rivers.
Our Lalmonirhat Correspondent says, many villagers of the district's Khuniagach and Gokunda unions have been passing sleepless nights in fear of erosion.
Locals said that they had already lost all their croplands, while many of them had already shifted their houses.
Due to the erosion, many well-off families have suddenly lost all they had, and now many of the members of such families are now working as day labourers and rickshaw pullers.
Ashraf Ali, 65, an erosion victim, said that once he was a solvent farmer.
"I had six bighas of land in Khuniagach village. I was happy with my six-member family. But all of a sudden, the river snatched away everything," he told the FE.
He is now a landless day-labourer. His sons have left the village. One is studying in a madrasa, the other pulls rickshaw in Dhaka city.
In last two decades, thousands of villagers lost their lands and homesteads by the Teesta river erosion.
Sohir Uddin, 75, a resident of Gokunda, said, "Hundreds of families lost their homes and farmlands in the last two years."
Afsar Ali, another local of the same village, said, "We now want a permanent solution. We no longer need relief or aids. What we need now is a river protection dam."
Executive Engineer of Water Development Board, Lalmonirhat, Mijanur Rahaman, said, "We are working in some points of Khuniagach and Char Gokunda by dumping sand-filled geotextile bags on the river's banks to protect those areas."
Our Netrakona Correspondent says, the banks of the Someshwari river in the district's Durgapur have been eroded due to heavy rains.
As a result, several parts of Farangpara and Bhabanipur villages have already been devoured by the river. The only road between the two villages is about to disappear due to erosion by the river. The people of both the villages are now in intense fear of losing their croplands, households and educational institutions.
According to locals, the erosion situation could worsen any time if immediate measures are not taken now.
Lovely, a student of Farangpara village of Durgapur, said, "The road from North Farangpara to Bhabanipur will be washed away soon if the river erosion continues at this pace. This will make us face a new crisis of transportation."
Upazila Nibarhi Officer (UNO) Mohammad Rajib-ul-Ahsan said, "We have already visited the river erosion areas and assured the villagers of necessary steps soon."
Mohan Lal Soikat, Executive Engineer of Netrakona Water Development Board, said, "Some of our officials were recently sent to the spot, and instructed to dump 250 sacks of sand on the banks of the river."
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