Meghna-Dhonagoda dyke collapses in Chandpur

Sudden erosion along the Meghna-Dhonagoda embankment is threatening cultivable lands and homesteads of hundreds of thousands of locals in Matlab upazila of Chandpur.

On Friday night, cracks started developing on the 200-metres main embankment along the Meghna River at Kacharikanda in Matlab Uttar upazila.

Soon after, an 80-meter stretch of the embankment went into the river. Locals joined hands to dump several thousands of geo bags and managed to control the erosion from further worsening, after a frantic effort until around 3am on Saturday.

Sources said different crops are being cultivated on 17,548 hectares of land inside the embankment and about 400,000 people have been living there.

Chandpur-2 MP Advocate Nurul Amin said a Tk400 crore embankment protection works would begin there. "Actions should be taken as soon as possible to protect the embankment. If the Water Development Board does not finish the work soon, the embankment may collapse any time.

"Previously erosion occurred a couple of times at the spot. Altogether a loss of Tk50,000 crore would be sustained (if steps are not taken). I would like to draw the attention of our honorable prime minister, Water Resources minister and the relevant departments in this regard."

Mamun Hawlader, executive engineer of a irrigation project at Meghna-Dhonagoda, on Saturday said: "A thousand geo bags and 6,000 synthetic bags were dumped at the erosion spot. With this we managed to bring the situation under control. From the early morning we are preparing new bags through contractors.”

"Now there is nothing to worry about. Still we have been remaining vigilant and hopefully there won't be a problem."