Nearly 500 residents, mostly fishermen, in East Midnapore’s Sankarpur have joined hands to temporarily repair a 1km stretch of an embankment that was damaged over a week ago by incessant rain and high tidal waves.
“District officials have not been able to repair the embankment though the damage happened almost 10 days ago. So we thought we must do something to save ourselves,” said a villager in Sankarpur, a fishing harbour that is known for its dry fish business.
The villagers embarked on the initiative to temporarily fix with sand bags the embankment that runs along the coastal road from Sankarpur to Tajpur as they fear that high tides might hit the area again on September 2, a full moon night, and further damage their village and properties.
Huge tides, commonly known as spring tides, usually lash coastal areas around new or full moon nights. The tides rise higher than usual during the rainy season, often leading to floods in coastal belts.
Over August 18 and 19, most of the coastal road stretching from Tajpur to Sankarpur in Talgachari-2 gram panchayat had been damaged by incessant flooding and the thrashing of larger-than-usual waves. Stone embankments along the area were razed as water flooded many villages and submerged roads.
More than 1,000 residents of villages surrounding Sankarpur had to evacuate their homes.
In Sankarpur, the effort of the villagers to repair the embankment with sand bags has been aided by the Digha-Sankarpur Fishermen’s Association.
This week, the association helped the villagers with nearly 20,000 sand bags and heavy machinery, including excavators, to temporarily repair the embankment.
“We have been working relentlessly for three days now. We know it is a temporary measure but it is necessary to make an effort ahead of the new moon night when spring tides lash the coastal belt,” said one villager.
Former CPM MLA and secretary of the Sankarpur Fishermen's Association, Swadesh Nayak, accused the district officials of “inaction”.
“Villagers finally had to appeal to us to get work done, so we helped them,” he said, adding that over 2,500 fishermen lived in 12 villages in the area in makeshift homes.
“By giving free labour to repair the damaged dyke, the fishermen are trying to save their homes and livelihood,” Nayak said.
During the tidal waves earlier this month, homes of most of these fishermen were damaged and several quintals of dry fish had to be destroyed.
However, East Midnapore district officials said that the irrigation department engineers had planned to repair the damaged stretch soon.
Officials also termed the use of sand bags to fix the embankment, even if temporarily, as “unviable”.
“Black stone embankments need to be reconstructed in the area. It will take some time, but we will get it done” said BDO (Ramnagar I), Bishnupada Ray.
Digha-Sankarpur Development Authority vice-chairman Akhil Giri accused Nayak of playing “politics” with an eye on the next year’s Assembly elections.
“He (Nayak) is trying to play with public sentiments. Our officials have already begun planning the reconstruction (of the embankment) and work will begin soon,” said Giri.
However, this is not the first instance of villagers repairing damaged embankments. Shortly after Amphan hit the state on May 20, hundreds of villagers in South and North 24-Parganas had repaired broken embankments on their own to try and save more than 100 villages that were getting submerged twice a day during high tides.
