Tidal waves inundate a village in Kendrapara district. Telegraph picture

Kendrapara, June 8: With the surging tidal waves getting the better of enfeebled coastal embankments, tidal waves have made its ways into seaside gram panchayats of this district inundating large areas since Thursday .

The affected gram panchayats, according to official sources, are Jamboo, Suniti, Benakanda, Badiha, Kharinasi, Ramnagar and Batighar.

The tidal ingress has inundated places of habitations and crop fields in some of the gram panchayats lying close to sea. Reports reaching here said that over 5,000 acres of agriculture fields were submerged with tidal waves making inroads while spilling over the saline embankment buffer erected about 20 feet above the coast.

“The block officials and personnel of saline engineering wing division have rushed to the affected areas and are taking stock of the situation. The extent of damage is being assessed. Measures to refurbish the vulnerable breach-prone spots of the coastal embankment are under way to stop recurrence of such tidal ingress in future,” said Kendrapara collector Pradeepta Kishore Pattnaik.

However, the panchayati raj institution representatives differed from the official’s version. “No government official has paid a visit to the affected areas till now. The seaside embankments are ill-maintained. Funds sanctioned for the purpose are grossly misused. As a result, people are exposed to the vagaries of tidal ingress,” said Sumitra Manna, sarpanch of Kharinasi gram panchayat.

“Suniti gram panchayat is being frequent hit by ingress of tidal waves. People here are living under constant threat. Despite repeated pleas, no permanent measure has been taken to stop the recurrence of such nature’s fury. About 5km coastal embankment had been built about four decades ago to protect the villages. But the length and breadth of the embankment is not enough to cope with sea surge. Unless its length is doubled, the existing embankment is inadequate to stop ingress of tidal waves in future,” said Manoj Patra, sarpanch, Suniti gram panchayat.

The maintenance of the coastal embankments in vulnerable Mahakalpada block is left much to be desired. There has been generous flow of funds. But the same is being largely siphoned off to compound people’s misery. “The sluice gates erected at strategic embankments points were left wide open and that led to the unabated ingress of tidal waves into the human settlements,” said Balram Parida, former Mahakalpada panchayat samiti chairman.