Dam of Gurmar Haor Couldn't Be Saved

Water is entering through the Tanguar Haor dam in Tahirpur upazila of Sunamganj. As a result, more than 6,000 hectares of boro land in 10 haors including Noal and Jaipur haors are being submerged.

 Sunday (April 17) at 4:30 pm, water is entering Tanguar Haor by breaking the PIC Golgalia Dam No. 27 of Gurmar. For the last 12 days, locals and farmers, including Tahirpur Upazila Executive Officer Mohammad Raihan Kabir and Dakshin Sreepur Union Parishad Chairman Ali Ahmed Morad, have been working day and night to fix the dam.

Meanwhile, water is entering through the dam next to the Watch Tower in Tanguar Haor around 11 am today. This dam is 150 feet long. Although the dam is not a dam of the Water Development Board, the work was done through PIC No. 23 at a cost of Tk 9 lakh. The dam was repaired after it collapsed a few days ago. But today, even though the dam is fine, water is entering through the side of the dam, said Ahmed Kabir, a haor development worker.

Earlier, on April 2 morning, several dams of the upazila including Nazarkhali dam in Tanguar Haor broke and 6,000 hectares of boro land were submerged in water.

Meanwhile, PIC president Anwar could not be seen even though water entered Tanguar Haor.

On the other hand, due to the rising water level in the river, not only PIC No. 23 but also 24, 25, 26, 43, 44 dams of Binodpur and every other embankment and the low area beside the embankment.

They say that the only boro paddy produced in the haor is at risk due to the poor functioning of dams and closures. Bamboo mats were not used in most of the closures. There is a kind of hole (Phulpa in the local language) created for this reason under the dam. All those holes were not filled. Durmuz (pressure) was not applied to stabilize the soil well.

Leaders of the Haor Bachao Andolan say that the allocation of funds for the construction and renovation of the crop protection dam in Sunamganj Haor has increased manifold. The length and height of the dam have also increased. But due to the lack of construction and supervision of the dam with faulty design, it was not sustainable. That is why the farmers are terrified when the rivers adjacent to the haor fill up with the water of the hill slope. They say there has been no hill slope in the last four years. Field officials at PIC and Paubo thought it would not happen this year either. Due to this, the quality of work of the dam has deteriorated.