A villager sits on the sandbags that checked river waters from gushing into the village. Telegraph picture

Balasore, Oct. 16: A group of alert villagers in Jaleswar block averted a major disaster for their village situated on the Subarnarekha riverbank during the current flood.

About 200 people prevented entry of the floodwater into their Gobardhanpur village in Rairampur gram panchayat. They put around 5,000 sandbags on a 3-km stretch on the bank of the Subarnarekha.

Sanjay Nath, 38, who ekes out living by stitching school uniformsspent Rs 1.2 lakh from his purse in buying sand.

“As our village is very close to the Subarnarekha, it is vulnerable to flood. On the last occasion in 2008, we suffered a major blow after a huge volume of water gushed into our village through the breached embankment points,” said Nath.

“After uniting the village’s young force, we placed the sandbags on those vulnerable portions,” he said.

Another villager Kalicharan Nath, 32, said: “The local junior engineer didn’t respond to our distress call. So, we joined hands to fight the situation ourselves.”

“We could save not only villagers and cattle, but also our crops,” he said.

Sub-divisional officer of the irrigation department Gagan Chandra Giri said he had the information that the villagers had volunteered to put sandbags to prevent the entry of floodwater. “It was not possible to go to the village at that time,” he said, adding that he would try to ensure that the expenditure got reimbursed.