Says survey
About 10.56 lakh out of 16.89 lakh hectares of coastal land are affected by soil salinity of various degrees, said a survey of the Soil Resources Development Institute (SRDI) of the Ministry of Agriculture.
According to the findings of the survey in 2010 on saline soil of Bangladesh, more than 62 percent out of the total cultivated land in the coastal areas has already been affected by salinity. About 10.53 lakh hectares are stricken by very slight, slight, moderate, strong and very strong salinity.
Some of the new lands of Satkhira, Patuakhali, Borguna, Barisal, Jhalakathi, Pirojpur, Jessore, Narail, Gopalganj and Madaripur districts are affected by different degrees of salinity, which is reducing agricultural productivity remarkably.
The survey findings say that the total salinity-hit land has increased to about 10.56 lakh hectares from 8.33 lakh hectares over the last four decades. In 2001, the size of the salinity-affected land was nearly 10.20 lakh hectares.
The worst saline-stricken districts are Khulna, Bagerhat, Satkhira and Patuakhali.
Withdrawal of fresh river-water from upstream, irregular rainfall, introduction of brackish water for shrimp cultivation, faulty management of sluice gates and polders, regular saline tidal water flooding in unprotected area and capillary rise of soluble salts are the main causes of increased soil salinity in the top soils of the coastal regions, said the report.
The district-wise water samples from different water sources such as sea, river, canal, pond, gher (enclosure), hand tube well, shallow tube well and deep tube well were taken for preparing the survey report, said SRDI officials.
-With BSS/The Daily Star input
