Home
+
Published : 25 Jul 2026, 04:53 PM
Erosion driven by the shifting course of the Teesta River is battering parts of Nilphamari's Dimla Upazila.
Farmland and homesteads are vanishing one after another.
More than 100 families have had to relocate their homes in just three days to escape the devouring river.
A visit to riverside areas of Jhunagachh Chapani and Khalisha Chapani unions, including Baishpukur, Dalia, Chhatunama, Kellapara and Bhendabari, found affected residents in distress on Friday.
Md Rashidul, from Bhendabari, was moving his house when he spoke.
He said he had lost his homestead, and the little farmland he had left, where he had planned to grow Aman paddy, now lay under the river's current. He called it a matter of survival.
Fellow farmer Jahidul Islam, 56, said the river had turned ferocious, swallowing 1.6 hectares of his land.
He said there would be no way to survive if the erosion did not stop.
Teesta-side resident Mominur Rahman, 65, said every year floods wash away homes and farmland, yet no one offers a lasting solution.
He said he had lost count of how many times he had rebuilt his home.
Residents accused the Dalia Division of the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) of taking no visible action, even as the erosion has worsened over three straight days.
Samad Ali, from Kellapara, said homesteads and farmland were vanishing into the river daily, but their suffering seemed to go unheard by board officials.
BWDB’s Dalia office said bank protection work would begin on Sunday, covering nine points along a 17km stretch of the right bank in Dimla.
According to the board, the Teesta's water level has now dropped below the danger mark.
But even as water recedes, the river's shifted course means the villages remain unaffected by the improvement, with the current still striking them directly.
Recent heavy rain and upstream flooding had pushed up the Teesta's water level.
Downstream of the country's largest Teesta Barrage in Dalia, the river shifted its course into the right bank, cutting through Khalisha Chapani and Jhunagachh Chapani unions and leaving both exposed to erosion.
Nur Hossain, a member of Jhunagachh's Ward No. 9, said more than 100 homes and about 202.3 hectares of farmland had been lost to the Teesta so far.
Families in the area kept dismantling and moving their homes, with 60 relocating on Wednesday and Thursday and another 15 following on Friday.
Teesta floodwater has swept over roads for three straight days, leaving hundreds of homesteads still underwater.
Flood-hit families are facing severe hardship, with many unable to cook and relying on dry food instead.
Dalis’s BWDB Executive Engineer Amitabha Chowdhury said the Teesta had struck nine points along a 17km stretch of the right bank.
He said a survey had been completed and preparations made for bank protection work, with a contractor being hired on an emergency basis and work set to begin Sunday.
