River erosion grabs 25,000 acres of land a year: Report

Bangladesh Disaster Preparedness Forum in a recent report, based on the studies of different organisations, said more than 25 lakh people were rendered homeless as the rivers devoured their homesteads along with the sources of livelihood.

The report said the Brahmaputra (Jamuna) is the most furious river that entered Bangladesh through Kurigram and made its way up to Manikganj, eroding vast tracts on both sides of its bank.

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The Padma and the Meghna are two other major rivers, which appeared with their all devouring wrath, engulfing thousands of acres of lands in several northwestern and central parts of the country.

Experts said although the very nature of the rivers, particularly those in the north and northwestern regions, are responsible for the erosion, unsustainable interventions on rivers, particularly for controlling flood, made them more furious.

"Many of the flood control structures like embankments proved to be counterproductive in the past as rivers usually do not tolerate any intervention, even if it is a bridge," said leading water expert professor Ainun Nishat.

A number of people who lost everything to the wrath of the Jamuna in Bogra blame the Brahmaputra Right Embankment for their miseries though a structure was erected to protect the western bank line of the river from erosion.

Unplanned extraction of sands from river might trigger the erosion as experts referred to the case of Louhajang of Munshiganj. The massive erosion there is blamed on sand extraction from northern side of the Padma.

The experts, however, said that yet the country had little option other than embankments to protect the important places and establishments. But they cautioned against unplanned structural measures without environmental and social impact assessments.

Voluntary disaster management agencies and officials acknowledged that so far, no extensive studies were carried out on the river erosions or their impacts but different statistics showed that Kurigram, Gaibandha, Nilphamari, Lalmonirhat, Bogra, Rajshahi, Pabna and Sirajganj are the worst flood-affected districts.

According to experts, Chandpur is another crucial example of erosion which lost a vast tract in the past one decade to the river. They fear a piece of land between Meghna and Dakatia rivers is exposed to impending danger of erosion.