About two lakh people in seven upazilas of Bhola district were again marooned in the last two days due to tidal surge in absence of a 10 kilometre stretch of embankment of the Water Development Board (WDB).The embankment, damaged earlier at different places of the island district, was not repaired in time by the WDB. Ten kilometres of the embankment were washed away in phases following the recent cyclone ‘Mahasen’ that swept the area.As a result, water from the Meghna enters through the damaged portion of the embankment during new moon and full moon. This time, ahead of the full moon, villages in Kachia, Dhania and Ilisha unions of Bhola Sadar upazila went under several feet of water over the last two days.The worst affected is Borhanuddin upazila where the people of Bara Manika and Paria unions are suffering the most as houses went under chest deep water at the time of tide.There is no way to go to shelter centres. People are also suffering for lack of pure drinking water.Idris Akon of Baro Manika said people cannot have their sehri and iftar properly during this holy month of Ramadan.More than two lakh people in Tajumaddin and Lalmohan upazilas, in Charfashion and remote island Manpura along with Bhabanipur and Syedpur unions of Daulatkhan upazila remained marooned.Crops on hundreds of acres of land and fishes in ponds as well as roads were destroyed in these areas.Not only within the embankment areas hundreds of families outside were also flooded by 3 to 4 feet of water.Borhanuddin Upazila Nirbahi Officer Jahangir Hossain said people in Hakimuddin Banglabazar area were marooned for nearly 45 days due to the absence of embankment. So far 450 tons of rice under VGF have been distributed among the affected people, he said.Bhola Water Development Board-1 executive engineer Abdul Hannan said construction of the dam has started despite various problems.He said whatever work is done is being washed away by tidal water, but efforts are continuing to take forward the work.Hannan informed that local people did not give land timely for the construction of the dam. – UNB, Bhola’
