At least three villages were flooded as a point of an embankment on the bank of river Kholpetua collapsed due to the pressure of water during the high tide in village Bichhat under Ashashuni upazila in Satkhira Monday morning.
The affected villages are Bichhat, Ballavpur and Basudebpur of the upazila.
The incident occurred at about 10:00am when people were busy with Eid celebration after offering Eid prayers. About 150 feet of the embankment collapsed and water began to enter into the villages during the high tide.
Nazrul Islam, a retired schoolteacher of Bichhat village, said that the point became weak due to the lack of proper maintenance for a long and the Water Development Board began repair works about two weeks ago due to local people鈥檚 demand.
He said that the embankment collapsed suddenly at the point adjacent to the place where the WDB began works.
He said that they came to know about the collapse while villagers were busy with celebrating Eid.
The villagers, on hearing the news, rushed to the spot and began to build a temporary ring embankment voluntarily.
Local union parishad chairman Md Ruhul Quddus said that over 1,000 people worked voluntarily on Monday.
He said that if the embankment was not repaired immediately, dozens of villages of his Anulia union and two nearby unions 鈥� Khajra and Baradal 鈥� would become waterlogged.
Satkhira WDB Division-1 executive engineer Md Sakhawat Hossain said that they had already sent officials to the location to arrange geo bags for emergency repair works.
He said that he had informed his higher authorities of the matter to take immediate steps.
