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Furious Buriganga devours 14 more Basila houses

Special Correspondent
The residents of Basila trembled in redoubled panic yesterday as an insatiable channel of Buriganga River devoured 14 more houses and continued to claw at hundreds of other bull dings in the area.
Earlier, between 13 and 18 August, the diverted channel in anger gobbled up II houses of that area in Mohammadpur in the city after the river had been forced to change its course due to illegal construction of four brick kilns and a dyke built by the kiln owners.
Yesterday, at around seven in the morning, several houses plunged into the fierce current of the river that Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (B1WIA) had been trying in vain to tame and deflect by dredging an additional channel near the kilns.
The erosion continued throughout yesterday and threatened new areas. Some locals, not knowing what to do, dismantled their ancestral homes and tried to move those to safety.
A team of the BIWTA officials rushed to the spot but was clueless about what todo.
One ofthe team said, "Theflood-waters that would flow downstream through a four kilometres wide channel are now passing through an area hardly 300 metres wide. So, it is quite natural for the current to be so ferocious."
He said the massive encroachments by the brick kilns, the one-kilomctre-long Basila Road built without proper drainage and the filling up of the flood plains are causing the floodwaters to flow turbulently through the narrowed stretchof the river.
"The 250-year old Basila now stands as an obstacle on the path of the huge amount of floodwaters flowingtowardsthesea," hesaid.
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Hanif Mia, who lost nearly 80 percent of his house to the river, alleged the authorities were indifferent to the urgent need to stop erosion by dumping sand bags. He said he on his own initiative had dumped more than 1,000 sand bags in the river but could not save his homestead.
"I have done all I could to save my property, which my ancestors left for me. Today, I am left with nothing," Hanif wailed.
Those who lost houses yesterday include Mohammad Azam, Kokila Begum, Mohammad Islam, Geddu Mia, Mortaz Ali, Kalu Mia, Labu Mia, Mizanur Rahman, Shahjada, Siddiqur Rahman, Hanif Mia, Mohammad Abul, Mohammad Babul and Mohammad Rabi.
BIWTA officials said, with the change in course, the river suddenly became 72 feet deep near the spot, making the entire island extremely vulnerable to erosion.
"I am afraid the erosion cannot be stopped unless huge amount of sand bags are dumped here. It is so deep, it would take millions of bags to protect the place," said one of them.
A team of Savar district administration officials yesterday visited Basila and said the other side of the river, where the brick kilns were built, is under their jurisdiction.
"We now confirm that all the three brick kilns which have caused the river change its course is illegal and we are serving a notice of eviction today," said Mohammad Golam Mostafa, a land record keeper of Savar upazila under the land ministry.