Tidal waves trigger breach in coastal embankments at Rajnagar tehsil in Kendrapara. Telegraph pictures

Kendrapara, July 14: Tidal waves have made their way into seaside villages, inundating crop fields in Rajnagar tehsil in the district.

The tidal waves triggered breaches in embankments at four strategic points, causing the water upsurge. Tidal water transgressed the enfeebled embankments and made inroads into villages, spilling over the saline embankment buffer erected about 20 feet from the coast.

Incessant rain, strong winds and the ingress of the tidal waves, has added to the misery of the people living in Gobardhanpur, Olasahi, Mangarajpur, Naukana and Balarampur villages in Rajnagar tehsil. Besides, tidal waves have also smashed the Satabhaya coast inundating Satabhaya, Kanhupur, Barahipur, Balisahi, Rabindrapalli and Magarkanda villages.

Tidal ingress has also caused breach in saline embankments in Rajnagar-Gopalpur, Keredagada-Alatanga and Mahua-Jagannathpur. An estimated 2,500 acres of agriculture land have been submerged following the cave-in of the embankments.

“The surging water spilled over the embankments, damaging it at three to four places. Work has begun to repair the damaged embankments. As a temporary measure, inflow of water has been plugged by putting in place sand-filled bags. There is no further possibility of tidal ingress from the particular points. We have identified some other vulnerable breach-prone points. Measures to repair the points have been undertaken on a war-footing,” said executive engineer of saline embankment division Jugal Kishore Tripathy.

Engineers of the saline embankment division have been asked to undertake repair and maintenance work of weak embankments and sluice gates at the earliest to prevent scopes of inundation in the future, said Kendrapara sub-collector Pratap Chandra Mishra.

“Because of slipshod maintenance works, embankment built during the seventies to protect the coastal villages in Rajnagar is now in a bad shape. Funds sanctioned for refurbishment of the embankment in the aftermath of the 1999 cyclone has mostly been misused. As a result, the coastal villages are still exposed to the vagaries of the nature,” said former sarpanch of Gobardhanpur gram panchayat Damodar Biswal.

But the length and breadth of the embankment is not enough to cope with sea surge. If its length is not doubled, the existing embankment will fail to stop ingress of tidal waves in future, he added.