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Over 1500 farmers are in much trouble in cultivating Boro paddy this season due to water crisis. Many of them from the five villages of unions under Jogonnathpur upazila in Sunamganj district were now engaged in preparing seedbed though a good number of farmers have already done that.
These local farmers on their own initiatives erected an embankment on the Magura canal in Ishakpur area, near the upazila headquarters a month ago with a target to irrigate their cropland. But the embankment got cracked and the major portion of the canal went dried up within weeks, causing much for the farmers as they preserved water there. It has resulted in a severe crisis for the targeted irrigation and farming on at least 1500 acres of land on the Ilsi and Moladupi haors.
Ward Councillor Khalilur Rahman said with the assistance from Jogonnathpur Pourashava almost every year the farmers erect temporary embankment and arrange irrigation for the Boro lands nearby, but often things get cracked, he said.
The farmers however demanded permanent irrigation structure like sluice gate on the canal or an embankment be made by the Water Development Board (WDB) for facilitating them in cultivating the crop lands, which are used for lone crop Boro paddy every year.
An official in the WDB however said, "We would have to have a feasibility study on the matter before taking a scheme there."