Jamuna devours 300 houses in Jamalpur

Erosion by the Jamuna river devoured at least 300 homestead and hundreds of bighas of arable land at three villages in Madarganj upazila in the last couple of weeks.
As a result, over a thousand residents of those erosion-hit villages have become helpless and passing their days in utter despair.
The affected villages are Hidagari, Kwalikandi and Pakrul.
Besides, Pakrul village used to exist along the Jamuna bank only four to five weeks ago, but now the village is no more, as the river devoured the entire village in a matter of weeks, erasing it from the map.
Mentionable, over one thousand families, living along the river banks, in three upazilas of the district — Madarganj, Dewanganj and Bokshiganj — are left exposed to the untimely natural calamity.
Charpakerdah Union Parishad (UP) Chairman Badrul Alam said though more than 300 houses, several hundred of bighas of cropland, local mosques, a number of government primary schools and an year-old burial ground have been eroded at three villages under his union in over one month time, measures taken by Jamalpur Water Development Board (WDB) has failed to prevent the untimely erosion.
Echoing the same, Amkhawa UP Chairman Mohammad Ziaul Islam said around 250 families at different villages in adjacent Dewanganj and Bokshiganj upazilas have lost their homesteads and over 200 acres of arable land this year due to erosion by the Brahmaputra and Jamuna rivers, but no permanent step has been taken to check the problem.
Afaz Uddin, who used to live at Pakrul village a few weeks ago, alleged that after losing his homestead he along with other family members took shelter on other’s land nearly a month ago, but none of the concerned people visited the place or distributed any relief materials.
Rafiqul Islam, deputy assistant engineer at Jamalpur WDB, said a proposal of constructing a 1,500- meter-long permanent embankment has been submitted to the Planning Commission to prevent the river erosion in Madarganj.
About 12,200 Geo-bags have been dumped at different vulnerable points of the upazila, he added.
Madarganj Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Faizul Wasima Nahat said they have distributed different relief materials among the erosion-hit villagers and are trying to prevent the river erosion as soon as possible.