Bangladesh News

Bangladesh Water Development Board’s (BWDB) several projects including a Tk 272crore one to address river drainage congestion and waterlogging problem in the south-west region have proved futile.

After implementation of the projects, the situation has rather worsened while local people alleged that most of the money allocated for the BWDB projects was misappropriated.

The perennial problem that has already marooned over five lakh people and posed a serious threat of further waterlogging in most parts in the region is deliberately kept alive as it serves the interest of corrupt officials who can pocket a good amount of money from various projects, they said.

Executive Engineer of Khulna BWDB Abdul Malek, however, termed such allegations ‘totally baseless’.

The Tk 272crore Khulna Jessore Drainage Rehabilitation Project (KJDRP) that was implemented between 1995 and 2004, included massive dredging work, construction of regulators, dams and embankments in the project areas, but it failed to improve the situation.

Rather, the project further worsened the drainage problem in the region and led to the death of several rivers in the area, locals said.

A cross-section of affected people, whom this correspondent talked to, vented their anger on BWDB officials who did not accept locals’ suggestion to address the problems through indigenous water management practices known as Tidal River Management (TRM).

After wastage of quite a long time, BWDB included TRM system in the project but faulty implementation resulted in failure of some of the TRM attempts.

The system developed over generations is simple — to allow tidal flow into wetland basin and releasing it back to the river. Through this process, sediments carried by tidal flow deposit on the wetland basin instead of riverbed.

“As long as BWDB officials are here, the problem will not be resolved,” said Shahidullah Sarder, convener of Keshabpur upazila Krishak Sangram Samity.

Local leaders of the successive ruling parties mysteriously support BWDB activities that have so far failed to bring any positive result, locals said, adding that influential owners of fish enclosures in the area are also playing significant role in the waterlogging that left hundreds of hectares of land unusable and damaged several thousand houses.

The KJDRP project covered 100,600 hectares of land spread over Batiaghata, Daulatpur, Dumuria and Phultala upazilas in Khulna and Abhoynagar, Keshabpur, Jessore Sadar and Manirampur upazilas in Jessore.

Local people resisted the project for years as its design and approach did not match with their ‘expectations’.

Superintendent Engineer of BWDB (Khulna) Nurul Ala said they could not work in the proper way and complete their task in time due to resistance from the local people.

Claiming the KJDRP as successful, he said, “Most of the rivers would dry up if the project works were not carried out.”

KJDRP was supposed to mitigate the waterlogging problem, but the project made the problem much more difficult and complex to solve, said a book on KJDRB published by local NGO Uttaran, which is working to help people get rid of waterlogging.

Besides, the project has led to the death of several rivers, said locals and some members of Water Committee, a local civil society forum campaigning for measures to solve the problem of persistent waterlogging.

Thirty-two kilometres of silted up riverbed of Hamkura river is now being used as agricultural land. The river was alive and flowing but implementation of the project divided its flow into Hari river basin and Upper Sholmari basin, leading to the river’s death, observed the Water Committee members.

The connection between Upper Bhadra and Buri Bhadra is also nearly dead. Besides, rivers in northwest part of KJDRP area, namely Teligati, Hari, Upper Bhadra and Harihar are now under threat. The situation could have further worsened if local communities did not implement TRM in Beel Bhaina.

Nevigability of Ghengrail and lower Salta has been substantially reduced after the connection between the two rivers was severed under the project.

To ensure community participation in the project, Water Management Association (WMA) and Water Management Federation (WMF) were formed at different levels. But there are allegations that people’s representations were never reflected in WMA and WMF as local influential people used to be elected in the bodies through the use of power.

The elected WMA and WMF members used to support BWDM activities, defying protest of local people.

Principal AMB Shafiqul Islam, president of Water Committee, said the project was similar to that of Costal Embankment Project under which 37 polders and 282 sluice gates were constructed in Khulna, Satkhira and Jessore districts in the 60s. “It is old wine in a new bottle,” he said.

Following the construction, higher level of sedimentation in river channels gradually raised the riverbeds while adjacent beels (wetlands) subsided due to non-deposition of sediment, resulting in waterlogging in a vast expanse of land.