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March
29, 2001
Kushtia, Mar 28 (UNB) – Integrated action plan is needed immediately to re-excavate the rivers of southwestern region of the country, which were heavily silted affecting navigation and causing scarcity of irrigation water.
Experts said it was imperative to bring back ecological balance, check going down ground water level, developing of pisciculture and availability of surface water for irrigation.
In the absence of dredging, 25 big and small rivers flowing through the region have become almost dried at places in the dry season giving rise to environmental degradation, salinity, arsenic contamination, scarcity of safe drinking water and decrease in moisture contents of the soil.
Water and soil experts said desertification of the region caused by unilateral withdrawal by India of waters of the Ganges and Teesta rivers in the upper reaches has resulted in poor flow in the downstream.
It has also increased soil salinity in 21 districts of the country by 40 per cent, they said. As a result, they apprehended that more than 1.20 crore acres of cultivable land in southwestern and northern districts of the country might turn into barren arid land.
Excessive withdrawal of water in the upper reaches of the Ganges has been increasingly lowering the moisture content of the soil in southwestern and northern Bangladesh.
Quoting a study on the country’s present condition of soil moisture, an expert said, critical point of lowest percentage of moisture in the soil usually recorded in April or May before 1975 but now it start happening in February.
“It has squeezed land acreage and the quantum of Rabi crops in greater Rajshahi, Pabna, Kushtia, Faridpur, Jessore, Khulna and Barisal districts, experts said.
Rise in salinity of surface water and intrusion of soil salinity in the districts due to the fall in the level of river Padma will force change in cropping pattern in those districts, he added.
The water flow available in the Ganges at Hardinge Bridge point can not save the loss of moisture in the soil of other districts. The main two tributaries of Padma are Gorai and Mathabhanga.
Water of these two rivers flowing through Jhenidah, Magura, Narail, Kushtia, Meherpur, Chuadanga, Jessore and Satkhira maintained the soil moisture and ecological balance of the region.
But at the off take of the river Gorai and Mathabhanga silt deposited so much so that no water could go through these rivers reducing the moisture contents of the soil making the land arid and the river beds have been used now as cultivable land.
Off take of the river Mathabhanga is situated in the middle point of Chilmari union of Kushtia district and Jalangi of the district of Murshidabad in India. Off take have been silted up due to low flow of water for a long time and off take has never been dredged.
River Bhairab, which depends on water of Mathabhanga has been dried up. One decade ago Bhairab-Mathabhanga project was taken up by Water Development Board. A foreign firm conducted feasibility study and work started but the fate of that project is not known.
If implemented water could be preserved and used for irrigation in dry season. The river Chitra, a tributary of the river Bhairab, is also dead. About one hundred-mile long upstream of the Chitra is dead. If the river Chitra is re-excavated vast area in Jhenidah, Magura and Narail could be irrigated.
Another river Nabo Ganga is also dead. The 70-mile long Nabo Ganga has been silted up. The riverbeds have become now cultivable lands in Jhenidah and Magura districts with irrigation by ground water.
The conditions of rivers Kumar and Kali are also similar and the sources of these two rivers are Gorai. The Dakua river is also dead with the implementation of GK project. Boma and Begabati rivers are also dead. Some 60 mile-long riverbed has been turned into cultivable land.
The rivers Hanu Teka, Jamuna and Sree have also met the same fate. Gorai river is dead as the off take of the river have been silted up.
Government has taken up a plan to re-excavate the off take of the river Gorai and the work is going to be completed in June next. If the river Gorai could be brought in its normal flow then salinity in the southern region may be stopped, water experts said.
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