S.A Shofiee, Sylhet Bureau :
Boro crops on nearly 100 acres land of Tanguar Haor area in Tahirpur Upazila of Sunamganj went under floodwater as the embankment collapsed due to the onrush of hill water on Friday.
The farmers of the Haor area became helpless when the Erailla Kona Mondiyata dam collapsed.
Over 50 hectares of boro paddy were submerged on Friday in Tahirpur, Sunamganj after an embankment protecting Eralir Haor gave in.
‘God knows what awaits our fate,’ said Jahangir Hossain, Deputy Commissioner, Sunamganj.
‘Harvest began on a very limited scale as boro paddy is not yet ripe,’ he added.
With another spell of flash flood looming, the Haor Banchao Andolan, a haor-based social movement, on Friday said that the actual area of land affected by the past flash flood was over four times greater than the official estimate.
The Haor Banchao Andolon put the size of the flood-hit boro fields to be about 20,000 hectares in 30 haors in Sunamganj, far greater than the official estimate of 4,350 hectares.
‘The official estimate hid information apparently in a bid to reduce pressure on the government for helping the affected farmers,’ said Bijon Sen Roy, General Secretary, Haor Banchao Andolan.
The official estimate cared only for big haors, he said, highlighting that small haors affected by the past flash flood did not find a place in the government estimate.
The Haor Banchao Andolan said that 6,000 hectares of the submerged boro fields are in Derai upazila, followed by 5,000 hectares submerged in Dharmapasha, 4,500 hecatres submerged in Sulla and 3,000 hectares submerged in Tahirpur.
In Sadar upazila, 250 hectares were submerged while there are 300 hectares submerged in 15 small haors in different areas,
said the Haor Banchao Andolan.
Overall, according to the official estimate, more than 6,000 hectares of standing paddy crops were submerged in the three flood-hit districts and the Gowainghat upazila of Sylhet. ‘The official estimate comes from the agricultural extension office. I can’t tell why with the big difference in the two estimates,’ said Jahangir Hossain.
Local agricultural extension offices said that they were busy preparing a list of the affected farmers and motivating farmers to harvest their crop once 80 per cent of it is ripened.
Confirming the matter, Tahirpur Upazila Nirbahi Officer Raihan Kabir said the dam that collapsed in Tanguar Haor was not established by the Water Development Board.
In the last one week, nine dams in Tahirpur, Dharmapasha, Shalla and Dirai upazilas of the district have collapsed and thousands of hectares of boro crops have gone under water.
Farmers in the Haor area in Sunamganj are living in fear that they may be deprived of their boro paddy’s harvest.
On April 1, the Nazarkhali dam in Tahirpur collapsed, inundating 120 hectares of boro crops. Then eight more dams collapsed one by one.
Besides, cracks have been developed in all the small and big dams in the Haor area of the district.
Meanwhile, earlier in the day, Deputy Minister for Water Resources AKM Enamul Haque Shameem paid a visit to the affected areas in Derai Upazila in Sunamganj where haor embankments got damaged due to onrush water.
During the visit, he said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has instructed the authorities concerned to take permanent projects to protect the haors.
Various projects are underway across the country to protect river erosion and new projects are being undertaken. Besides, permanent dams are being constructed across the country after identifying the river erosion-prone areas, he said.
Those affected by the collapse of these dams in this Haor area are being assisted by the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, he added.
Meanwhaile, Rivers in the two flash flood-hit districts in the north-east region of the country may rapidly swell over the next 48-72 hours following heavy rain upstream across the border in India, warned the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre on Friday.
The rivers in the flash flood-hit districts – Sylhet and Sunamganj are already flowing very high, draining runoff from the past week’s heavy rain upstream, with a very negligible fall in their water levels on Friday, about a centimetre an hour or less.
