AMTALI, BARGUNA, May 8: A severe crack has appeared in the Tetulbaria flood control dam, adjacent to the Payra River in Amtali and Taltali upazilas of Barguna.
This has put 25,000 people living in 15 villages alongside the river at grave risk. They are now spending sleepless nights.
According to local sources, due to continuous rainfall over the past few days and the high tide of the Payra River causing an excessive rise in water level, a major crack appeared on Wednesday night across approximately 150 metres of the embankment beside the Payra River, adjacent to Tetulbaria in Nishanbaria Union of Taltali Upazila. Part of the dam has already been washed away into the river.
Locals fear that if repairing is not carried out quickly, the dam could collapse at any moment, allowing river water to flood residential areas. If the dam breaks, it is feared that 15 villages including Tetulbaria, Boro Ankujan Para, Nalbunia and Agapara in Nishanbaria Union will be inundated. This would cause extensive damage to homes, farmland and fish enclosures.
Residents of Tetulbaria village, Babul Howlader and Selim Matubbar, said, 'The dam is repaired every year, but no permanent solution is ever provided. The way the crack has appeared this time, we are so terrified that we cannot sleep at night, as water could burst in at any moment. Therefore, we demand the immediate construction of a sustainable dam.'
Hasina Begum, a sexagenarian from Tetulbaria Village, said, 'If the dam breaks, our fate will be ruined. We are not sleeping at night for fear the dam might collapse. If the dam breaks, we will drown and die.'
Sundar Ali of Nalbunia Village said, 'If we want to survive, we need a high dam. If a small, low dam is built, it will break again.'
The Chairman of Nishanbaria Union Parishad, Dr Kamruzzaman Bachchu Miah, said, 'Given the way the crack has appeared in the Tetulbaria flood control dam, it will disappear into the Payra river within a day or two. Without the dam, thousands of people in the union will be left floating in water. Therefore, I am drawing the attention of senior authorities of the Water Development Board to repair the dam urgently.'
Md Himmel, Sub-Assistant Engineer of the Water Development Board (WDB) in Taltali Upazila, admitted the erosion issue in the Tetulbaria area and said that senior authorities had been informed.
The Upazila Executive Officer of Taltali, Mohammad Zahidul Islam, said the WDB in Taltali and Barguna had been asked to inspect the site and take measures.
The Executive Engineer of the WDB in Barguna, Abdul Hannan Pradhan, said, 'I have come to know about the crack in the dam. Measures will be taken very quickly to prevent the erosion.
A project proposal has been submitted for constructing blocks to solve the problem permanently.' He also said that if locals provide the land, a ring dam would be constructed.
