Arya News - Rapid river erosion in Bangladesh`s Gopalganj region has destroyed 20 homes in five days, and put nearly a dozen more at risk.
GOPALGANJ – Hemela Begum had just returned home around Asr to perform ablution when her daughter-in-law suddenly called out, “Maa, come, everything is going away.”
She rushed towards the riverbank to see the Madhumati river swallowing homes.
Five houses were swept into the Madhumati river that day. More followed the next day.
By the time the erosion eased, the homes of all seven of Hemela’s sons, as well as those of two grandchildren, had disappeared into the river.
The remains of the houses lie scattered along the riverbank. Furniture and household items sit in the open and their cattle wander nearby. The families now live beside the river, where their homes once stood.
“We all used to live together,” the nearly 70-year-old woman said, breaking down in tears. “Now we have nowhere to go. I have no idea where we will go or how we will live.”
Riverbank erosion began on September 11 along the left bank of the Madhumati in the Dubushi and Shikdarpāra areas of Ichakhali village under Jalalabad Union in Gopalganj Sadar upazila.
70-year-old Hemela Begum.
Around 130 families have been affected so far, said Jalalabad Union Chairman FM Maruf Reza. The homes of about 20 families have been swallowed by the river, while another 11 families are living in vulnerable conditions along the bank.
“More than 120 bighas of land have been washed away by the river in the past five days,” he said, adding that the affected area is comparatively densely populated and the erosion has been rapid.
Locals said the area has remained vulnerable to erosion for years, but no permanent measures have been taken in the past five years.
They estimate that around 500 bighas of land have been lost during that period, forcing more than 100 families to move to Narail, where a new settlement called Par Ichakhali has emerged.
For Sagarika Begum, 45, this is the fourth time she has faced river erosion. Her belongings have been moved, but her house remains dangerously close to the river.
“My husband has died and I have one son. I have nowhere else to go,” she said. “If we do not receive assistance, we will have to leave.”
Rahmat Ali Sheikh, 42, has been spending his days and nights on the riverbank after losing his home. Six or seven structures on his homestead have been swept away.
“No government official has come to check on us,” he said. “We have nowhere to build a house elsewhere, so we are forced to stay on the riverbank.”
Md Zakaria Ferdous, sub-divisional engineer of the Bangladesh Water Development Board in Gopalganj, said erosion had affected about 400 metres of the riverbank.
The BWDB has supplied 4,000 sand-filled geo-bags, he said, adding that work to prevent further erosion would begin soon.
Emergency measures had previously been taken along a 250-metre stretch. If approval is obtained quickly for work on the newly affected 400-metre stretch, “it will be possible to prevent further erosion”, he said.