UNB :
Water levels of all the 16 rivers in the district – including Brahmaputra, Dharla, Teesta, and Dudhkumar – have increased due to continuous rainfall .
As many as 50 villages on the sandbars on the Dharla and Teesta rivers in Kurigram have been flooded due to heavy monsoon rains.
In the last three days, some 20 families have been rendered homeless across the villages on the riverine land.
Besides, several hectares of Aman seedbeds and jute, corn, and other agricultural fields went under flood water due to the rise in water levels of the rivers.
In fact, the water levels of all the 16 rivers in the district, including Brahmaputra, Dharla, Teesta, and Dudhkumar, have increased due to three days of continuous rains.
With the rise in water levels, riverbank erosion has intensified at several places, including Teesta Gabur Helan, Khitabkha, Dharlar Sardob, Pateshwari.
A 50-metre area of the dam in Sardob has been submerged too. As a result, some 15 villages in the low-lying areas of the district have gone underwater, rendering scores of residents homeless.
On Friday, UNB found several people – Maula Mia, Ukil Mia, Azizul, Abia, and Kasiman to name a few – in the riverine areas whose houses have been destroyed.
These villagers tried their best to protect portions of the Sardob dam by digging the earth and throwing sandbags on Thursday.
Omar Farooq, the sub-divisional engineer of the Kurigram Water Development Board, said the remaining portion of the dam would be protected at any cost.
Seventy percent of the area in Mahishkhocha Union Parishad in Aditmari upazila of Lalmonirhat is on the bank of the Teesta river, said Mosaddek Hossain Chowdhury, Union Parishad’s chairman. As the Teesta water rose, about 2,000 families in his union were left stranded. At the same time river erosion has taken serious turn in many places, he said.
Manser Ali (60), a farmer from Shimulbari village in Kurigram’s Phulbari upazila, said that 200 families in their village were affected by flash floods from the Dharla river water. The water level has been rising since this morning. The crop fields of the village have been submerged as well.
