Outraged residents and local shopkeepers staged a two-hour road blockade at WAPDA Mor in Saidpur, Nilphamari, after foul sewage overflowed onto arterial highways due to the illegal land-filling of a government-owned pond.
The blockade, which lasted from 1:30 PM to 3:30 PM on Thursday (October 15, 2026), completely halted traffic along both the Saidpur-Rangpur and Saidpur-Nilphamari highways, trapping hundreds of passenger buses and commercial vehicles. According to local residents, a 15-decimal water body belonging to the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) at WAPDA Mor had served as the primary drainage outlet for the surrounding urban neighborhood. Over the past month, former Power Development Board (PDB) engineer Abidur Rahman and Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) Saidpur Upazila President Delwar Hossain Javisko illegally filled the pond with earth. Consequently, filthy drainage water flooded the highway, damaging road carpeting, eroding soil embankments, and submerging bus ticket counters along the Saidpur-Domar route.
Despite repeated written complaints submitted to RHD, the municipality, and local administration, no protective action was taken until residents blocked the highways. The blockade was lifted after Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Saidpur Police Station Rezaul Karim Reza and Municipal Executive Engineer Ayyub Ali arrived at the scene and facilitated a direct telephonic assurance from Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) and Municipal Administrator Farah Fatiha Takmila. Authorities have deployed excavators to immediately drain the stagnant sewage and issued a 24-hour deadline to the encroachers to remove the filled earth, failing which RHD Sub-Director Tania Tasnim Cynthia confirmed legal prosecution will be initiated.
— Daily Best News Desk • Fearless in the search for truth
Reported by Md. Zakir Hossain, Syedpur (Nilphamari) • Edited by the Daily Best News desk. Send corrections to [email protected].
