Flood poses severe threat to Aman crop in north

Staff Reporter :
As char people are mostly vulnerable to floods almost every year with their only staple Aman crop being affected, this year they are they also are on the verge of losing the last hope of growing the crop as waters of the Rivers Teesta, Dharla and Dudhkumar are still rising in the northern region.

The Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre (FFWC) on Tuesday in its report said that waters of the Brahmaputra and Jamuna rivers are in a rising trend, which may continue in the next 24 hours.

Besides, the Ganges and Padma Rivers are in a rising trend too, which may continue in the next 72 hours, the FFWC bulletin added.

The Jamuna River at Fulchari of Gaibandha, Bahadurab of Jamalpur and Porabari of Tangail points may flow close to their respective danger levels in next 24 hours, the FFWC report said.

Meanwhile, the Rangpur divisional agriculture office on Monday said that over 9,000 out of nearly 25,000 hectares of Aman fields were currently submerged in water with the likelihood of complete loss of the crop in 5,000 hectares.

According to Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB), the flood situation turned worse in the north with 113 more houses swept away by rivers in the five flood affected districts – Rangpur, Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, Nilphamari, and Gaibandha.

It is mentionable that there are over 300 chars in the five northern districts currently being hit by the flash flood, home to over 42,000 houses.

According to Mehadi Hasan, Assistant Engineer of BWDB, also in-charge FFWC, “Except the Kushiyara, all the major rivers in the North-Eastern region of the country are in a falling trend, which may continue in next 24 hours.” He also said that the Teesta river may remain steady and the Dharla and Dudhkumar rivers may fall in the next 24 hours.

The flood situation in the low-lying areas of Lalmonirhat and Rangpur districts of the Teesta basin may remain steady in the next 24 hours, he added.

Meanwhile, India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday forecasted that there are chances isolated heavy rainfall activity very likely over Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura during next 5 days in the Northeast India regions.

East India: Light/moderate fairly widespread to widespread rainfall/thunderstorm & lightning with It also predicted that isolated heavy rainfall activity very likely over Sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim and Odisha until September 02, the IMD report said.

However, Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) predicted that light to moderate rain or thundershowers accompanied by temporary gusty wind is likely to occur at a few places over two south-southeastern divisions and at one or two places over other rest six divisions with moderately heavy falls at places over the country.

“Light to moderate rain or thunder showers accompanied by temporary gusty wind is likely to occur at a few places over Barishal and Chattogram divisions and at one or two places over Rajshahi, Rangpur, Dhaka, Mymensingh, Khulna and Sylhet divisions with moderately heavy falls at places over the country”, said a met office forecast for the next 24 hours on Tuesday.

The axis of monsoon trough runs through Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal to Assam across central part of Bangladesh.

One of its associated troughs extends up to North Bay.

Monsoon is less active over Bangladesh and weak to moderate over North Bay.

Maximum rainfall for the last twenty-four hours till 6am yesterday was recorded by 38 millimeters (mm) jointly at Hatiya and Khepupara.