Jamuna being dredged to save 2 Tangail upazilas from erosion
Water Development Board (WDB) has started implementing a Tk 39 crore Jamuna dredging project to save Bhuapur and Gopalpur upazilas of Tangail that has been witnessing a severe erosion for the last several years.Photo: STAR
Authorities have started dredging the Jamuna to streamline the river system and save the people on the east bank in Bhuapur and Gopalpur upazilas from erosion. The mighty Jamuna, with its more erratic courses in recent years, leaves a large number of people vulnerable to erosion. During construction of the Bangabandhu Bridge several years ago, a strong guide embankment was constructed at the west end of the bridge to protect Sirajganj from erosion. However, areas to the east of the bridge, especially in Bhuapur upazila, remained unprotected as no guide embankment was constructed there. After construction of the bridge, around 30 thousand dwelling houses, four high schools, 40 government and non-government primary schools, over 40 mosques and madrasas, several bazars and more than 50 villages including a part of the municipality area of Bhuapur upazila went to the riverbed due to the erosion, said sources in Water Development Board (WDB). Consequently, about one lakh homeless people took shelter at different embankments and started living inhuman lives. The river erosion has also caused cracks at several points on important Pingna-Jokarchar flood control embankment cum road, leaving several lakh people of four more upazilas in the district vulnerable to flood. Responding to the erosion-affected people's demand for dredging the river and constructing a guide embankment to check erosion in the area, WDB recently started implementation of a Tk 39 crore project under Capital (Pilot) Dredging of River System in Bangladesh. Dredging is being done in a two-kilometre stretch of the river at the triangular area of Bhuapur and Gopalpur upazilas in Tangail and Char Sonamui and Char Bharua in Sarishabari upazila of Jamalpur to close a channel of the river and divert the water flow through the main channel, WDB sources said. The two-kilometre-long embankment is meant for checking the water flow on the east side. Besides, a canal is being dug to divert the water flow through the main channel in the west. Meanwhile, people of char (landmass emerged from river areas) villages in the middle of the river in Gabsara and Aurjuna unions of Bhuapur upazila are fearing that erosion will increase at that side due to the dredging. The villages will face serious erosion due to controlling the flow through dredging and passing the water through the west channel, said Mohammad Jinnah, chairman of Gabsara union. “We the char people are not against dredging the river but it should be done from Bangabandhu Bridge to Tarakandi in Sarishabari for overall benefit of the area,” he added. However, the officials of Abul Momen Limited, the contractor firm responsible for the dredging, said 40 percent of the total fund is kept to face the possible challenges during the project and so, if any problem arises due to the dredging, it will be solved instantly. When contacted, Riazul Hasan, executive engineer of WDB in Tangail, said, "We are implementing the capital (pilot) dredging project in Jamuna River mainly to streamline the river system. The dredging causes no harm to the char villages. It can only hit some empty chars with lose soil that have recently emerged in the middle of the river."
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