Sirajganj in danger as embankment caves in

WDB office attacked
A 500-feet stretch of Sirajganj town protection embankment caved in by the strong current of rain-fed Jamuna river Friday morning, endangering at least seven municipalities and villages on the river bank.
Local office of Water Development Board said the embankment in front of Gaila Hindu cremation ground suddenly started caving in at around 10:00am due to strong pressure of water, reports New Age correspondent from Sirajganj.
Panicked by the sudden erosion, people residing inside the embankment area got agitated and attacked the office of WDB’s executive engineer M Aminul Islam, blaming water officials’ negligence and ill-management for the damage to protection embankment. They also vandalised two vehicles of the board. Police immediately intervened and rescued Aminul from people’s wrath.
The WDB began throwing sandbags and concrete blocks to protect the embankment, and the severity of erosion started weakening in the afternoon.
‘The waves directly hit the hard-point for change in course of Jamuna as large shoals emerged that intensified the flow. We are trying our best to protect the embankment,’ said M Aminul Islam, the WDB executive engineer.
‘The water-flow is also directly hitting the hard-point as the Sailabari groin went under water in 2005,’ he added.
The official said erosion along Sirajganj point exacerbated in the past 24 hours though the Jamuna waters receded substantially.
WDB director general Abul Kalam Azad rushed to the spot Friday afternoon. He told reporters it was really difficult to forecast correctly about the Jamuna courses and no need was felt for taking preventive measure at the point for past 10 years.
Hundreds of town people gathered to see the erosion-hit part of the embankment while many others of the adjacent village Gaila began taking their belongings to safer places.
The district administration has deployed police and Rapid Action Battalion at the spot.
Afzal Hossain, the superintendent engineer of Sirajganj WDB said they have been trying hard to control the erosion.
After inauguration of the Jamuna Bridge, about 2.5km long ‘Sirajganj Hard-Point’ was built by Hyundai Corporation between 1995 and 1999 at the cost of Tk. 331.36 core to protect Sirajganj town and adjacent areas on the western side of the Jamuna Bridge from erosion.
Meanwhile, the flood forecasting and warning centre marked improvement of flood situation in the north and north-eastern districts as river heights marked fall at 45 points out of 73 monitoring stations on Friday. At 23 points, they continued to swell and at five points remained steady.
The Padma was flowing 4cm above danger mark at Goalundo and was likely to flow below danger mark by Saturday.
Major river systems — the Brahmaputra-Jamuna and the Ganges-Padma — showed a falling trend on Friday and may fall further in next 3 to 4 days, the centre said.

Courtesy of NewAgebd