Silt Up of Kobadak River
Marooned people demand effective river management
The marooned people living on the side of the River Kobadak in the southwest of the country are demanding an immediate excavation of the silted up river and an effective river management to remove the water that collects there for months every year.
The water stagnation in the Kobadak basin began in late nineties but it became severe in recent years.
For the last four months, recent flooding has resulted in loss of houses and livelihood for thousands of people living by the side of the river.
‘We are passing days miserably. None came to us with relief this year. We want no relief but we want to grow crops in our lands. To do so, we need the water to be flushed out and the river to be excavated,’ said 73-year-old Nimai Pada Devnath of Boro Kanaidia village. His homestead is still under water.
The septuagenarian said they had been facing the problem for the past five years but he had not left his home.
According to Bangladesh Water Development Board officials, the government in October 2011 took a project ‘Removal of Drainage Congestion from Kobadak River Basin (Phase I)’ that was supposed to be implemented between July 2011 and June 2015.
The Tk 261.54 crore project includes tidal river management at Pakhimara bil, under Tala upazila and re-excavation of the Kobadak river, they said.
Tidal river management is a method of silt management in which river water is poured into an adjacent bil during high tide, and then flushed out in the low tied leaving the silt which over time results in the bil bed becoming higher than the riverbed.
In 2011-12 financial year, the government allocated Tk 28.37 crore to construct a peripheral dam, establishing outlet pipes on the dam, land acquisition and constructing bailey bridge to implement TRM at Pakhimara bil.
The government, however, had released only Tk 13 crore and only 75 per cent of the peripheral dam and 25 per cent of outlet pipes were completed in 2011-12, the officials said.
According to the officials, the government in 2012-13 has allocated Tk 114.65 crore for the project to dig a connection canal, compensate farmers for crops destroyed to implement the TRM at Pakhimara bil, establish a closure dam and to excavate 23 kilometres of the river with dredger and 28 kilometres mechanically.
The government, however, had released only Tk 15 crore in the past financial year and the concerned administrations had with that money excavated adjacent Shalikha river, constructed dams by the side of Pakhimara and a 21-kilometre dam in the Jessore part of Kobadak and they were now paying compensation to the land owners of Pakhimara bil, the officials said.
In the current 2013-14 fiscal year, the government allocated Tk 30 crore to implement the project but no money had yet been released.
The officials, however, expected that a part of the allocated money would be released immediately.
Locals and the officials alleged that a shrimp enclosure owner and a section of interested group filed a writ petition and the High Court on June 18, 2012 had stayed the implementation of TRM at Pakhimara bil.
Though the period of the stay expired on December 17, 2012, the quarters were still trying to influence the land owners of the bill so that they would protest against the TRM at the bil, whilst thousands of people continued to remain marooned, they said.
The river is silting up more and more and every years water stagnation is expanding in the downstream of the river, the officials and locals said.
‘As the silting up continue and the Kobadak river is on the verge of dying at Pakhimara point, there would be no water in the river to implement the TRM at Pakhimara bil if there is any further delay to implement the project,’ Pani Committee president ABM Shafiqul Islam said.
Massiur Rahman, water board executive engineer in Jessore, however, said that there would be no problem in implementing the TRM at the point as the board was excavating channels at the necessary points in the river almost every year.
‘To ease the ongoing public sufferings and flush out the stagnant water in Satkhira and Jessore, we will begin excavating about 40km channel in the river soon,’ he said.
The executive engineer, however, said that they could not begin excavating the Kobadak river until implementing the TRM at Pakhimara as otherwise the excavation would bring no fruitful result.
-With New Age input
