Many others were under the threat of devastating river erosion though the local Water Development Board putting Geo bags on the edges but constantly failing to control the erosion, locals said.

Some 300 houses of Bahadurpur and Degirchar villages of Gopinathpur union in Harirampur upazila were swept away while 150 more houses eroded in Ramkrisnapur union along with paddy field and business establishments over the last one month.

Affected people were seen moving for safe shelter with their furniture and utensils while many took shelters to their neighbors and relatives’ houses and others took shelter on government land beside roads. 

Locals said at least 10 unions among the 13 unions of the upazila were affected by the erosion while most of the parts of Lechraganj, Sutalori, Azimnagar and Kanchanpur have gone under the river.

Also a large portion of Harukandi, Dhulsura, Boyra, Ramkrisnapur, Gopinathpur and Balla was engulfed by Padma. The Water Development Board have built an embankment with Geo bags to save the Sadar upazila while several points of the embankment have already broke down threatening fresh areas.

Manikganj Water Development Board said the government with the help of Asian Development Bank (ADB) built an 8 km embankment with Geo bags from Ramkrisnapur to Mirzanagar in 2016. The forceful water was entering the main land by breaking down several points of the embankment.

Engineer Mahbube Mowla Md Mehedi Hasan said they were reconstructing the broken parts of the embankment with sand bags. Besides to prevent further erosion of Bahadurpur and Ramkrisnapur Geo bags has been installed primarily at five points of the river.

In the dry season they were planning to build a permanent embankment there, he said.

Deputy Commissioner SM Ferdous said he visited the affected areas and made list of affected people.

He also distributed 30 kg of rice to each of the 306 affected families, said the DC.