The flood situation in Rajshahi has been worsening day by day, with the water level of the Padma river rising to 18.67 metres on Friday morning as against the danger mark of 18.50 metres. Harun-Ur-Rashid, executive engineer of the Water Development Board (WDB), has identified five points of the Rajshahi town protection embankment as being particularly vulnerable, where WDB workers are working round-the-clock to check any breach or erosion. He also expressed his worry at the continuous rise in the water level of the Padma. He expressed apprehensions that if such a situation continued for a week or so, it will be very difficult to control the situation.
Meanwhile, with the rise in the water level, thousands of people living in low-lying areas of the city have been displaced. They have taken shelter on the city’s protection embankment with family members and belongings, or in various schools, or even under the open sky.
Flood-hit Sahela Khatun of Zia Nagar area of the city said the water of the river has risen so rapidly that it entered her house within a short span of time, before her family could realise what was happening. She hastily left her house with her sons and daughters and took shelter on the embankment. As she has hurriedly shifted her belongings, she has left behind much of her stuff at her house. She added that water has reached chest level in her house now.
Sanaullah, a teacher of a college in Godagari who lives in Char Asaridaha village under the same police station, said the flood has assumed devastating proportions in the surrounding char villages of Godagari. Many areas with landed properties and houses in the Char Asaridaha, Diar Manikchar, Majher Char and Char Hanumantnagar villages have been washed away. Hundreds of marooned residents of those villages have failed to shift their homesteads and belongings. Having lost everything, they have taken shelter on the roads and embankments of the upazila.
State minister for industries Omar Faruque Chowdhury on Friday distributed four metric tonnes of rice among people of the Char Asriadaha union who have been marooned b y floods. Seventeen affected families of 16 villages of the union have been given 20 kg of rice each while 370 families received 10 kg of rice each.
Earlier, on Friday morning, the minister visited various areas affected by erosion and floods. He was accompanied by, among others, Godagari upazila nirbahi officer SM Tuhinur Alam, upazila project implementation officer Golam Rabbani, Char Asriadaha union chairman Golam Mostafa and Godagari municipal Awami League president Ayez Uddin Biswas.
Fazley Hossain Badsha, member of Parliament of Rajshahi Sadar constituency, also visited flood-affected areas of Baje Kajla area under ward 24 and distributed relief materials among the affected families. He called upon all able-bodied persons to come forward to assist the marooned people.
Many of the affected people, who have taken shelter in various schools and on embankments, complained that they have not got any relief materials. They also alleged anomalies in distribution of the relief materials, complaining that in some cases, all four or five members of a family have got relief materials, whereas in other cases, many families have not got any.
Shariful Islam Babu, mayor in charge of Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC), said the RCC was keeping round-the-clock vigil on the vulnerable city embankments and relief materials were also being distributed among flood-affected people by the RCC.
-With The Independent input
