Giving the Gorai a new life
The dying Gorai awaits a new lease of life as re-excavation of the river began recently.Photo: STAR
The ongoing excavation of the Gorai River bears bright prospect of ensuring natural flow of freshwater to the country's south-western region and saving the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest, from salinity. Under a Tk 942 crore project, huge amount of silt from the riverbed will be removed and a 2,200 metre flow-divider and Ganga-Gorai guide embankment will be built in the 31 kilometres of river way from Kushtia Sadar to Khoksha upazila, project sources said. During the first phase of the work till April this year, silt from 12 kilometres of the riverbed from the main flow will be removed while maintenance dredging will be done during the one-year-long second phase till April 2012. China Harbor Engineering Company is conducting the work that started on December 1 last year. The 386-kilometre-long Gorai River, an important source of fresh water in the south-western region, depends on the Padma for its flow. As the Padma itself remains lean in the dry season (December-May), its main branch Gorai also sees gradual decline in flow during the period. Consequently, intrusion of increased saline water in the coastal areas in greater Khulna region poses a serious threat to the Sundarbans and leaves an adverse effect on water quality, nature, fishery, agriculture, navigability and trade in a vast area. Seven of the 15 rivers dependent on the Gorai River are now nearly dead while eight others are following. The nearly dead rivers include Hisna, Kaliganga, Kumar, Hamkumra, Harihar and Chitra. In 1996, the then government took a large-scale dredging scheme on the Gorai and 34 km river was dredged in two phases. But before its maintenance dredging started, the project work was abandoned in 2001 when the BNP-led government took over. To keep Gorai River alive, around 50,000 to 55,000 cusec of water is necessary in the Padma. But the river in Bangladesh gets on an average 38,000 to 42,000 cusec water in last three months of dry season although it was supposed to get 55,000 to 70,000 cusec as per the India-Bangladesh agreement signed in 199, WDB sources said. Due to withdrawal of Ganges water by India at Farakka in the upstream, the Padma sees scanty flow, affecting the GK (Ganges-Kobadak) project, which has been used to irrigate around 1.16 lakh hectares of land in the region since 1959. After assuming the office in 2009, the present government initiated resumption of excavation of the Gorai River and donors assured necessary assistance for it. A joint team of Bangladesh and India started recording the water level at different points of the Ganges and the Padma on January 1 and the work will continue till May this year.
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