Teesta dam may vanish, WDB official says

http://www.thedailystar.net/2003/07/15/d30715070561.तम

Roving Correspondent, Rangpur

The entire Teesta flood control embankment will be washed away if the current spate of flooding continues for some days, an official of the Water Development Board said on Sunday।
The breach in the southern bank of Teesta that developed in Mornea area on July 11 has stretched up to about three kilimetres, he told this correspondent.
Breaches have also developed at many points of the embankment at Bijoy, Mohipur and Mohisasur villages.
WDB dumped sandbags to protect the dam.
Crores of taka were spent for maintaining the dam in the last several years but the repair works were not done properly, the WDB official said seeking anonymity.
A former Union Council member, Mofazzal Hossain, said about 1100 families have become homeless in Alalchar, Mohisasur, Almas Bazar, Uchhagram and Bagdohra villages in Gangachhara and Gajaghanta areas as their homesteads have been eroded by the river. About 3000 people are marooned in the areas, he said.
This correspondent saw at least 1000 families marooned in Kalagachhi, Islichar, Iswarkul, Joyramaja Mohipur and Laxmitari areas, with no supply of food and drinking water. Most of the tube wells there have go under water.
Many of them are on rooftops and boats.
"Flood water has washed away everything. We could not go to the bazaar on the southern bank of the river in last three days to purchase food", said Azizar Rahman from a rooftop at Islichar.
No official came to see their plight, he said.
When contacted, a relief official in the district said that 16 tonnes of rice and Tk 10,000 were distributed among the affected people in Gangachhara.
The local administration erected a flood shelter at a high land in Islichar and dug a ditch for drinking water।

http://www.thedailystar.net/2003/07/17/d30717070256.htm

Feasting on फ्लड
Roving Correspondent, सिराज्गंज
The flood is a bane for all but can be a boost for a few।A section of contractors are feasting on the current flood, allegedly in connivance with some dishonest Water Development Board (WDB) officials.
The contractors are drawing hefty amounts by submitting 'vague bills' for dumping stones and sandbags to 'repair' breaches in riverbanks, it is alleged.
"Who counts how many stones are dumped into water?" said a contractor at Kajipur while talking to this correspondent.
And, breaches are not lacking.
The 76-km main flood control embankment in Sirajganj breached at Baoikhola and Shubhagachha in Kajipur last year.
This year, flood washed away about one kilometre of the embankment and damaged about and 25 kilometers, said sources.
Breach in embankments by the mighty Jamuna is almost a regular phenomenon because renovation is not done properly in right time, they said. The Jamuna can be blamed for all the evils.
But WDB officials have a ready answer for this. The dams could not be repaired timely for 'want of funds', said Anwar Hossain, sub divisional engineer of WDB.
However, Ratankandi Union Parishad Chairman Golam Mustafa blamed the BNP-led alliance government for not initiating repair of the dam in time.
The dam was built at the initiative of Awami League lawmaker and former home minister Mohammad Nasim MP, elected from Kajipur constituency, he claimed.