SYLHET: Amid continued heavy rain in the Indian state of Meghalaya, the water level in the Surma River has risen further apart from others in the frontier districts.
Water started overflowing an embankment at Gurmar haor in Tahirpur upazila of Sunamganj district on Sunday morning.
Tahirpur upazila chairman Karuna Sindhu Chowdhury said, "Locals as well as BWDB and administration officials had been working to save the haor for the last two weeks, but in vain."
"With this, Boro paddy on over 2,000 hectares of land is likely to be inundated anew. However, it is not a new embankment, rather it is an old structure," he added.
He further said, "The locals were still struggling to protect the embankment".
The water level in the Surma River rose by 40 millimetres on Sunday morning while the Jadukata and Patlai rivers also swelled. The region experienced 13mm rains during the last 24 hours.
According to Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) sources, flash flood may hit the haor areas any time. They apprehend that it may hit any time as heavy rains are continuing in the upstream of the Sylhet region. Rain may continue for days and inundate vast areas of cropland in the haors.
Mainuddin, a farmer of Chhatak upazila in Sunamganj district said, "There has been sporadic rain in places for several days while many farmers are harvesting unripe paddy, which could be used as fodder. Some would be able to get 50 per cent of paddy".
He said he harvested unripe paddy on three acres of land amid flooding and breaches on the nearby embankment last week.
