Flash floods hit Satkhira on Eid, emergency services deployed
by Friendship News Desk,
6 April, 2025
On the morning of Eid, as the new crescent rose into the sky, so did the tide. In Assasuni, Satkhira, the Kholpetua River broke through a 200-foot stretch of embankment. Seven villages were submerged and fields drowned, with over 1,400 families affected. More than 250 farmers watched their nearly harvest-ready rice disappear underwater. For them, Eid came not with celebration, but with loss.
Later reports—from The Business Standard, Dhaka Tribune, and bdnews24—confirmed that at least ten villages, including Bichhat, Ballavpur, Nayakhali, and Anulia, were affected. Fishponds were swept away, and homes destroyed. People triedto hold the water back with their bare hands and bamboo sticks but the tide was stronger.
Community volunteers from the NABAPALLAB project witnessed the embankment collapse and helped to disseminate the news to villagers and Friendship team members. As soon as the news spread, Friendship team members from the NABAPALLAB and Mangrove Restoration projects rushed to the embankment site.
Together with local residents, they attempted to prevent the breach—laying sandbags, using mud and bamboo, doing all they could with what little was available. When the tide receded, they tried again, joined by Union Parishad members and other villagers. Despite their efforts, the embankment gave way.
The Bangladesh Army has since been deployed, with engineers and patrol units now supporting local containment efforts. The devastation was swift and overwhelming.
Friendship’s local, trusted, and embedded teams were on the ground from the beginning, working in coordination with local government to lead embankment repairs. After a quick assessment, Friendship’s mobile water plant was deployed to Nayakhali, alongside a floating latrine. Even at 8 PM on 4 April, queues still formed around for collecting drinking water—a living testament to both the urgency of the crisis and the impact of Friendship’s response. Floating latrines remain in full use. Friendship continued to work around the clock even as Eid festivities carried on elsewhere.
This is CIDRR in action—Community-Initiated Disaster Risk Reduction, a system built not around charity, but capability. Preparedness, instead of panic. Local resilience and not outside rescue. It is how communities survive the worst—together, and on their feet.
Though it will take time to reconstruct the embankment by the Water Development Board, the community is currently protected from tidal water with the support of the army and the temporary embankment. For now, the community people of the affected villages are not experiencing tidal water daily. That said, the hundreds of residents will remain waterlogged for months.
Assasuni is not alone. It is one name among many—one breach among countless fractures in our climate defence. These are not emergencies but patterns that have become increasingly predictable, and as such, preventable.
This is why climate-resilient infrastructure is not a policy line—it is necessary protection, the frontline. Embankments must hold. Toilets must float. There must be access to sanitation. Water must remain clean. Safety measures must be in place. Systems must endure rising tides and intensifying storms—not in theory, but in practice, where lives are at stake.
Adaptation is no longer a matter of debate. It is a necessity—urgent and inescapable. It is overdue. The people of Satkhira are not statistics. They are fighters. They have dignity. And they deserve more than sympathy. They deserve systems that work.
Let us not wait for the next breach. Let us act together, and with purpose.
