The Sharishabari upazila administration in Bangladesh’s northern district of Jamalpur is relocating 21 houses gifted to homeless families in observance of the Mujib Year under the government’s Ashrayan Project.

The houses were built in low-lying areas of the Chhaitani Beel that have been inundated due to a slight rise in the water level following days of rain this month.

All the families who had moved to the houses recently had to leave for higher grounds.

‘We are rebuilding the houses at a place close to its current spot by mobilising funds on our own,’ said Humayun Kabir, upazila project officer, Sharishabari.

Each of the houses was built with Tk 1.75 lakh distributed under the Ashrayan Project, said Humayun, adding that the project authorities would not give any money but want the houses relocated to a liveable place.

‘The local UNO office and local public representatives are mobilising funds for rebuilding the houses, the work of which has already begun,’ said Humayun, before abruptly hanging up the phone.

Officials at the Ashrayan Project office in Dhaka said that they were aware of the situation and took action against people involved in building the houses.

The place where the houses were built should have been elevated by filling earth but the work was never done, they said.

Sharishabari upazila nirbahi officer Shihab Uddin Ahmad could not be reached over phone in the past two days despite making several attempts.

The inundation of the houses has surprised people because there is no flood in the country at the moment.

Houses built under the Ashrayan Project are prone to flooding during monsoon but this year, monsoon flooding is yet to begin.

Dozens of families become homeless almost every year in floods, eroding their government-sponsored houses built across Bangladesh without ever carrying out any feasibility studies of the sites.   

Initiated in 1997, the Ashrayan Project is in its 2nd phase, which is set to end in June this year.

The project has so far rehabilitated 3.19 lakh families, 1.65 of them being landless and homeless.

In its first phase, the project spent Tk 908 crore to rehabilitate 1,05,913 families.

In the 2nd phase, the government is spending more than Tk 4,826 crore.