Officials said riverbank erosion wreaks havoc on the district town every year, leaving thousands of people homeless.

Erosion by the Meghna River has taken a serious turn over the last one week in Puran Bazar area of the district town, forcing hundreds of people to move their belongings to safer areas.

A 25-metre area along the river has already gone into the gorge of the mighty river while another 100 metres stand threatened by erosion.

The river was flowing 40.27 centimetres above its danger level on Wednesday.

According to Chandpur Water Development Board, the local administration has taken the project to permanently protect the residents and establishments in the district town from erosion.

The project has been sent to the Water Resources Ministry and now the proposal is under scrutiny, said an official at the Water Development Board.

During a recent visit to the erosion-hit area, Chief Engineer of Water Development Board (Cumilla zone) Zahir Uddin Ahmed said, “We’ve taken a project to protect the district town from riverbank erosion permanently. We’ve submitted the project to the ministry concerned for its approval. The project works include renovation of a 3.5-km area of the town protection embankment.”

“We’ve conducted a study on how to make the embankment stronger after examining the water flow of the Padma, Meghna and Dakatia rivers. Once the project is implemented, the district town will be free from riverbank erosion,” said Zahid Uddin.

He said many parts of the bank protection embankment have got damaged for lack of maintenance and strong current during monsoon.

Besides, he said, a 150-metre part at Harishavha in Puran Bazar area collapsed in 2019, he added.

Although renovation work was carried out on an emergency basis, now a 100-metre area of the embankment are under threat of erosion as many cracks have developed at three points of the area, said Zahir Uddin.

The local administration has kept GO sandbags ready in the erosion-prone areas to protect the embankment, he added.

Also read: Meghna continues to wreak havoc in Chandpur