Panchagadh Correspondent:
India opens 9 gates of Phulbari dam on Mahananda river at once, and about 7-meter embankment protecting Mahananda river bank in Banglabandha Jharuapara area of Tentulia upazila has disappeared into river.
It is known that due to heavy rainfall on Sunday (October 5, 2025) early in the morning, the water of Mahananda river reached near the danger level due to hill erosion. When India opened 9 gates of the embankment built on Mahananda river at Phulbari in Siliguri city at once, a 15-20-foot high wave of water crashed into the Mahananda river and hit the river bank on the Bangladesh border. When India closed the dam gates again after noon, the river water decreased. But in the area called Jharuapara on the Bangladesh border, a severe breach occurred in the bank protection block embankment. Before evening came, about 7 meters of the CC block embankment built in 2003-04 under the Water Development Board on the Mahananda River disappeared into the river. In addition, cracks appeared in the CC block embankment protecting the river bank for a few kilometers. During this time, trees planted on the border and a tin house were washed away. This caused panic among the villagers of Jharuapara, Kashimganj and Sanyasipara. Many families woke up at night fearing that the river erosion would spread in a severe manner if India opened the dam gate again.
Upon receiving the news, Upazila Executive Officer Tentulia Md. Afroz Shahin Khasru visited the scene. In addition, local BNP and Jamaat political leaders visited the river erosion area and assured to stand by the people.Meanwhile, NCP’s northern chief convener Sarjis Alam, who was on a tour of Tentulia with a party program, visited the river bank protection dam in Jharuapara village along with party leaders and workers in the afternoon. At that time, he came to life through social media and drew the attention of the Water Development Board and the district administration. In the afternoon, the chief engineer of the Rangpur Divisional Water Development Board visited the river bank protection area on the spot and assured of urgent measures to prevent the erosion. From Monday morning, approximately 10 to 15 thousand geo bags will be filled with sand in the initial batch to temporarily protect the erosion-affected areas, according to sources from the Water Development Board.
Jharuapara villagers Dulal, Nazir, Nur Alam and Rashed said that after the 90s, India diverted the flow of the river by constructing a stone groyne dam on the north-western bank of their village and installing three electric steel poles. Since then, the water of the Mahananda River has been hitting the Groen Dam and flowing towards the Bangladesh border and since then, the cropland on the banks of the river has started to erode. Later, India built a dam on the Mahananda River at a place called Fulbari near the city of Siliguri. Due to the water retention in the dam, the Mahananda has become a dead river. But during the monsoon season, if all the gates of the dam are opened at once, 15-20 feet high waves of water flow into the riverbed, flooding the low-lying areas and causing severe erosion on the riverbank. In this way, the deliberate neighbor India has caused damage by opening our water gates. They claim that the Mahananda is a transboundary river and India has built a unilateral dam upstream of this river to prevent the flow of water and has also threatened biodiversity. In addition, they are opening the gates without any warning message and drowning us in water, which is against international law. We strongly demand protection from this aggressive attitude of India through the current government.
Upazila Executive Officer Md. Afroz Shaheen Khasru said, I visited the collapsed area last Sunday and Monday. Efforts are being made to initially protect it by filling geo bags with sand. The matter has been informed to the Water Development Board’s elevation authority through the Deputy Commissioner (DC) sir.
In this regard, Ashutosh Barman, Executive Engineer of Panchagarh District Water Development Board, said, I have inspected the collapsed area of the CC block dam on the east side of the Mahananda River. Initially, sand will be filled in several thousand geo bags. In the meantime, the measurements of the collapsed area will be sent to the ministry for project allocation. Once the monsoon season ends, the work of permanent dam construction and renovation will be started.
