Kurigram, Aug 31 (UNB) – Over 100 homesteads at Hatiya union in Ulipur upazila have gone into the gorge of the Brahmaputra River in a week as the riverbank erosion has taken a serious turn with the recession of floodwater.   Around 9.5 lakh people who live in the vicinities of 16 rivers, including the Brahmaputra, Teesta, Dharla and Dudhkumar, suffered much due to flood for the last 20 days. Now they are passing days in worries due to the severe riverbank erosion.   The flood protection embankment, union parisahd building, six educational institutions, three mosques, one community clinic and one cyclone centre also stand threatened due to the worsening erosion.   No necessary measure has yet been taken by the Water Development Board to check the bank erosion, locals alleged.   During a recent visit to the union, the UNB correspondent found that the affected people along with their domestic animals and belongings were taking shelter in nearby villages.   Two-thirds of the union have been washed away by the Brahmaputra over the last three to four years.

 
Talking to UNB, Abul Kashem, 60, one of the victims of the riverbank erosion, said, “The river has swallowed everything. Where  I would go with my family now -- Allah knows! There was a graveyard of my ancestors but It's now just a memory,” he said in tearful eyes.
 
Abdul Hakim, 45, another victim of Nayadara village, said he has become a pauper losing four acres of cropland to the riverbank erosion.
 
Hatiya UP Chairman Abdul Hossain said to protect the area from river erosion, a sub- protection embankment was built but it got damaged due to the erosion. If the bank erosion continues, then it will not be possible to protect the union parishad building and the educational institutions, he added.
 
Executive engineer of the Water Development Board (Kurigram) Ariful Islam said they have brought the matter to the notice of the higher authorities concerned seeking remedial measures.