Dying rivers plundered by encroachers

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Influential people continue to encroach banks of the rivers, even their beds, in the southwest of the country as quite a few of them have already silted up and many others are facing the same fate.

Large-scale encroachment is hastening the death of the rivers, which were once the lifeline of trade and commerce in the region, particularly in Satkhira.

Bamboo barriers by so-called fish cultivators and obstruction of the rivers’ normal flow by owners of shrimp enclosures are also contributing to their death.

Even a few years back, those rivers were the main routes to transport merchandise to many riverside bazars (business centres) including Bardal, Patkelghata, Kaliganj, Uzirpur, Tarali and Parulia in Satkhira district where steamers, launches, cargo and boats carried huge amounts of merchandise.

The once flourishing trade centres are losing importance with dwindling trade and hundreds of boatmen and labourers have lost their jobs, local traders said.

During a visit to the region, The Daily Star correspondents found houses, shops, clubs, factories, and brickfields have been constructed on the riverbanks through earth filling. At places, the riverbeds are being used as fish and agricultural farms.

The encroachers grabbed the lands of rivers before the eyes of local administration, but there is no initiative to recover the lands despite demands from people of all classes.

Locals said influential quarters in connivance with local administration have also taken lease of dried up riverbeds.

Those who have lands are showing up as landless and taking lease of riverbed with the help of local administration, said Abdul Motaleb Gazi, a landless person living in Tipna village in Dumuria along the completely dried up Hamkura river.

He said the land grabbers recorded the khas land following silting up of the rivers in the names of their relatives.

No landless people get lease of the 32 km of khas land of Hamkura River, said Ali Ahmed of the same village.

Rabiul Islam, a resident of Binerpota village in Satkhira, said some influential locals have filled up shoals of Betrabati river at Binerpota and set up brickfields, dwelling houses, shops and a fish hatchery there.

Asked about encroachment of rivers in Khulna region, Executive Engineer of Khulna Water Development Board Abdul Malek said as the rivers are silted up, deputy commissioner’s office leased out the lands to local people.

Thirty-two kilometres of Hamkura river flowing through Jessore and Khulna districts and bordering Sonai river in Satkhira district have silted up while Kobadak, Marichchap, Chuna, Kakshiali, Betrabati, Habra, Upper Bhadra, Hari-Mukteswari, Shoilmari rivers are flowing like canals.

There remains only knee-deep water in many parts of the rivers during ebb tides in the dry season, locals said, adding that scarcity of water hampers irrigation in winter.

The drying up of rivers in the southwestern part is causing waterlogging and environmental hazards. Over five lakh people on 80,000 hectares of land spreading over Jessore, Khulna and Satkhira districts are now victims of persistent waterlogging.

The rivers once flowing with ferocity started to decline noticeably in the 80s.

Construction of 37 polders and 282 sluice gates in the three districts in mid-60s caused increased sedimentation in the river channels leading to gradual rise in the riverbeds.

Besides, construction of the Farakka Barrage across the Ganges in India caused decrease in flow of the rivers in the northwestern districts.

Meanwhile, shrimp traders dump remains of shrimp into the rivers, adding to the environment pollution in different areas of the district.

Stressing the need for continued dredging of the Kobadak River, Dr Kazi Rabiul Haque, a leader of ‘Kobadak Bachao Andolon’, said the government should take steps to stop earth filling and building structures on the riverbanks.

He demanded immediate removal of all illegal structures from the river to save it from extinction.

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