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Embankment collapse floods Satkhira villages

28 February 2009, 18:00 PM

NATIONAL

Our Correspondent, Satkhira

Over 3000 people were marooned as six villages in Gabura union under Shyamnagar upazila adjacent to the Sundarbans were flooded following collapse of a damaged embankment at Khalsebunia point on Kabodak River early yesterday. Following collapse of the 350 feet embankment, the sluice gate was also washed away due to heavy pressure of water from the river during the high tide. Over 500 bighas of crops were also inundated in the area and over 120 shrimp enclosures were washed away as water entered in the shrimp enclosures collapsing the sluice gate, said locals. The affected villages are Chakbara, Khalsebunia, Gabura, Madhya Khalsebunia and two other adjoining villages in Gabura union. The marooned people are preparing to take shelter on the nearby high lands. Acute scarcity of safe drinking water is persisting in the affected areas as most of the tube-wells have gone under water, sources said. Local people were working there to reconstruct the collapsed embankment but the embankments collapsed by heavy pressure due to violent tide. Water Development Board (WDB) failed to take measures to reconstruct the damaged embankment even after repeated appeals by local people, said shrimp farmers Zahed Ali Mollah and Monsur Ali Biswas of village Khalsebunia and Majibar Rahman Mollah of village Gabura. Local people are trying to reconstruct the damaged embankment, they said. Contacted, Sub-Assistant Engineer Bikash Kumar Sarkar of the Water Development Board said they reconstructed the damaged embankment but it collapsed again after half an hour. They will reconstruct the damaged embankment as soon as possible, he said. Shyamnagar Upazila Nirbahi Officer Dilip Kumar Banik said local people under the initiative of UP leaders are trying to reconstruct the damaged embankment. He said he asked the local WDB officials to take measures as early as possible.