The river doesn’t wait. And for the farming families of Mebo subdivision, that brutal truth has never felt more real.
Severe erosion by the Siang river at the Borguli portion in East Siang district has taken an alarming turn, devouring several acres of wetland cultivation and leaving local farmers staring at the ruins of a season they had worked hard to build. The river, cutting aggressively to its left, is chewing through standing paddy crops, plantations, and bamboo groves across Borguly, Seram, Kongkul, Namsing, Mer, and Gadum — a stretch of riverbank communities that have long lived alongside the Siang, but rarely this helplessly.
The images coming out of Borguly tell the story better than any official report can. A large paddy field belonging to five families is already submerged. The crop is gone. And with the river showing no signs of easing, several more families watching their fields from the edge are asking the same anxious question — how long before it reaches us?
Monggu Banggo-I Zilla Parishad Member Bapiyang Tayeng, along with Water Resource Department Assistant Engineer (Mebo Division) Bani Langkam and local gaon buras, recently conducted a ground visit to the erosion-hit sites. They took stock of the damage and assessed the extent of threat looming over nearby cultivation areas. That kind of on-ground response matters. But for families who have already lost standing paddy days before harvest, it can feel like being handed an umbrella after you’re already soaked.
The Siang has a long, difficult history with Mebo. This isn’t the first time the river has pushed this far. Just last month, in August, massive erosion had already put Borguly village on edge after flash floods wiped out a vast agricultural area. What’s happening now is a continuation — a slow, steady siege that the riverbank communities have been fighting with almost no structural protection in place.
Mebo MLA Oken Tayeng is reportedly aware of the worsening situation and has been actively pressing the state government for the early sanction of a mega anti-erosion project for the Lower Mebo area. A proposal for comprehensive riverbank protection — covering the stretch from Sigar village all the way to Mer village — has already been submitted to the Water Resource Department. It’s sitting there. Waiting for sanction. While the river doesn’t wait for anyone.
That gap — between a plan on paper and protection on the ground — is exactly where communities like Borguly get swallowed up. Farmers don’t have the luxury of bureaucratic timelines. When the Siang rises and shifts, it acts in hours, not months.
The WRD, local elected representatives, and the state government now face mounting pressure to fast-track the anti-erosion project before the remaining crop fields and the livelihoods attached to them are washed into the river entirely. For the families of Lower Mebo, what’s at stake isn’t just a season’s yield — it’s their land, their home, and a way of life that the Siang is quietly, relentlessly claiming as its own.
The river may not wait. But the people of Mebo still are — for someone to act before there’s nothing left to protect.
