Kamrul Hasan, Rangabali, Patuakhali :
The only island upazila of Patuakhali district – Rangabali is gradually being reduced from the map by Ramnabad, Agunmukha and Degree River erosion.
Some people have lost their homesteads and land in the river erosion. The people, who lost their everything, took shelter on the embankment and some of them left the village and went to the town. The terrible breakdown river erosion image is seen at Chalitabunia, Gorubhanga, Bibirhawla and Gulbunia villages of the upazila. 6 thousand people of these villages have lost everything in the river erosion.
Koralia Launch ghat is situated 7 kilometers away from Rangabali Upazila Sadar. Anybody can reach to Chalitabunia from there by engine driven trawler passing over torrential flow of the Agun Mukha River. There is a horrifying picture of river erosion. It is known that the land and the housing helplessness of losing people.
Asim Mir (35), an inhabitant of Chalitabunia village, said, he survived with three-member of his family. Almost a year and a half ago, his family was destroyed by the erosion of Agunmukha River. Now he has built a house on the embankment and settled there. He said, “There is no salvation in the hands of the river erosion. I have given my everything in the river. Now I am living on the government land. The river has also come here. In the meantime, Ashim’s neighbor Ershad Khan (40) said, ‘It was seven and a half months ago that my wife, son and daughter were taking her. At present I have no anything. The houses are flooded in the river and the new ones are doing homesteads. Not only Asim and Ershad, the same situation is 6 thousand people in the upazila.
Locals said that since the year 2013, there are about 150 houses and various institutions of four villages in the Chalitabunia of the upazila. Most of the people who have lost land in the area have taken refuge in embankments. But there are also threats to break. Currently there is a danger of breaking down at least 1500 homes in four villages, including the Red Crescent Cyclone Shelter Center and nearby Jame Mosque. If the government does not take steps to prevent rapid erosion, then the union of Chalitabunia will disappear from the map of Rangabali upazila.
Chalitabunia Union Parishad Chairman Fazlur Rahman Howlader said, 150 families have lost their homes in the river erosion in four years. The intensity of the Ahunmukha and the Degree River is increasing day by day. About two years ago the original embankment was broken. Afterwards, the dam was constructed on an emergency basis, it was also disappearing.
