People in around 45 villages in the district have become marooned as heavy rain in the last two days triggered flash flood in Juri, Kulaura and Kamalganj upazilas.

Low-lying areas in Monu and Dhalai river basins were submerged during the period, said Executive Engineer of Water Development Board (WDB) in the district Bijoy I ndro Sankar Chowdhury.

Aus paddy on 13 thousand hectares of land got damaged due to the inundation, said Upazila Agricultural Officer in Kamalganj Md Shamsuddin.

Locals said heavy downpour for the last two days and water from the hills caused breaches on differ- ent points of the Dhalai river protection embankment.

Joyna 1 Abdin, 65, of Nischintopur village under Kulaura upazila in the Monu river basin, said more than 10 villages in the area were submerged on Sunday. The hapless villagers took shelter on roads, he added.

Sharifpur Union Parishad Chairman Junab Ali said at least 10 villages were hit by flood. If the embankments had been repaired in time, the villagers would not have to face this problem, he added.

Juri Upazila Parishad Chairman Gulshanara Mili said they have informed the higher authorities about the flood.

Abdul Alim, 58, of Ghuramara village in Kamalganj upazila, said the

flood was triggered by heavy rain in the last two days. "Water from the Dhalai river started to enterour homes since Saturday evening," he said.

Ona visit to the area, this correspondent saw that Mokhabeel, Guler haor, Sreepur, Hiramoti, Shimultola, Katabeel, Adampur, Bongaon, Ghuramara, Najatkuna, Hiramati, Tilakpur, Kamalganj, Chaitannaganj, Alepur, Gopal Nagar, Karimpur, Hjirpur, Kapana Kapon, Ramapasa, Munshibazar, Suranandapur and LIbahata villages under Kamalganj upazila were flooded.

Islampur Union Parishad Chairman Abdul Hannan said around 1,000 families have been affected, adding that around eight flood control embankments have started breaking up.

They informed WDB about the matter, and the officials just visited the areas but didn't take any action, Hannan said.

Mayor of Kamalganj Municipality Jewel Ahmed said five points along the Dhalai river have collapsed, one lakh people have become marooned and thousands of families along the riverside are living in fear of losing their croplands and homesteads.

Kamalganj Upazila Parishad Chairman Md Rafiqul Islam said they informed the higher authorities about the situation.

The executive engineer of WDB said there is no fund for repairing the Dhalai and Monu embankments, adding that they have sought funds for repairing those.