Three years after deadly landslide, survivors in Chattogram remain trapped in cycle of grief and fear
Photo Collected
Three years have passed since the morning of August 27, 2023, but for 14-year-old Bibi Kulsum Akhter, the memories remain as vivid as the day her world collapsed. Living in the IW Colony of Chittagong’s Sholashahar, the ninth-grader still recalls the early hours when torrential rain and gale-force winds culminated in a sudden, deafening roar. As she stood outside her home on Wednesday, pointing toward the foothills, she recounted the moment a landslide sent a wall crashing down on her family, burying their small home in darkness.
The tragedy claimed the lives of Kulsum’s father, Mohammad Sohel, and her seven-month-old sister, Bibi Jannat, both of whom died instantly under the debris. Kulsum and her mother, Sharifa Begum, were pulled from the ruins by neighbors, but the experience left deep psychological scars. For the mother and daughter, rain is no longer a seasonal occurrence but a source of constant terror. Sharifa admits that every time the sky turns dark, her heart races, fearing a repeat of that fateful morning. Kulsum, too, struggles with the trauma, often waking in a panic during storms, unable to shake the feeling that the hillside might give way once more.
বিজ্ঞাপন
The landslide not only claimed lives but dismantled the family’s economic foundation. Sohel was the primary breadwinner, operating a small tea shop that supported them. Following his death, Sharifa took over the shop and began working as a domestic help to provide for her surviving children. Despite her tireless efforts, the financial burden is overwhelming, and she deeply worries about the future of Kulsum’s education, which has suffered due to the loss of their only income source.
Although local authorities have installed iron fencing along parts of the hill to mitigate further disasters, the family lives in a small two-room dwelling nearby, constantly under the shadow of the same slopes that destroyed their lives. The reality of their precarious existence was underscored on Wednesday, when news reached their home that a 13-year-old girl named Samia Islam had been killed in another landslide at the nearby Muktijoddha Pahar.
বিজ্ঞাপন
Upon hearing the news of the tragedy at Mayor Goli, Kulsum fell into a heavy silence. As the rain continued to lash against the tin roof of their home, she simply gazed at a framed photograph of her father, a silent testament to the grief that lingers long after the soil has settled.
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