Finding durable solution to river erosion, floods

Heavy rain during the past few days accompanied with the onrush of water from the upstream regions in India have caused a flood situation in the northern and northeastern districts of the country. The water levels of the region's major rivers including Brahmaputra, Teesta, Dharla and Dudhkumar in the Kurigram district have been rising. Reports from the northern district of Lalmonirhat till Wednesday, July 5, were rather alarming as the river Teesta was flowing above the danger mark at Dalia Point of the Teesta Barrage area at the district's Hatibandha upazila. It is hardly surprising because all the 44 gates of the Teesta Barrage have been opened to reduce the water pressure. Hundreds of families from the low-lying areas have been displaced as those have gone under water. In the Ulipur upazila of Kurigram, for instance, Teesta erosion has taken a serious turn devouring scores of homesteads and destroying vast areas of cropland.
The Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre (FFWC) earlier on Monday reported that the waters of Surma, Old Surma and Someswari were also flowing above the danger levels in northeastern districts of Sunamganj and Netrakona. Sources in the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) warned that the situation in those areas might turn for the worse if the heavy rainfall begins in the Meghalaya and its adjacent Cherapunji region in India.
Since most rivers in Bangladesh originate in India, as the lower riparian, Bangladesh is forever at the receiving end either due to flooding during the rainy season or due to shortage of water in the major rivers during the lean seasons. If the flood situation worsens further and the erosion of the rivers continues, that would be the worst nightmare for not only the poor and the middle class peasants, but also for richer ones. After the floodwater recedes, the victims can at least get back their lands and homesteads, though their houses might be damaged and livestock and crops lost. But erosion is the leveller as it takes everything. Small wonder that river erosion is one of the country's major causes of poverty and internal migration.  According to an estimate, every year river erosion gobbles up about 25,000 acres of land dislodging around 300,000 people and more than 80 per cent of these erosion victims migrate to cities. Those fortunate among them manage to find shelter in the slums of the major cities and the rest become floating people. The districts most prone to river erosion include Kurigram, Gaibandha, Bogura, Sirajganj, Tangail, Mankganj, Rajbari, Shariatpur, Madaripur etc and the major rivers behind the misfortune are Padma, Jamuna, Teesta, Gorai, Arial Khan and so on. Why that is so is not hard to understand as around 80 per cent of the country's landmass is in the river basins. Unsurprisingly, river erosion occurs in the 51 out of the 64 districts of the country.
The flood situation prevailing in the northern and north-eastern districts is a recurring phenomenon. Surely, the government will be providing relief and arranging post-flood rehabilitation measures for the flood victims. But what will happen to those rendered asset-less and homeless by erosion of the rivers? Of course, adequate measures should be there to rehabilitate the people uprooted by river erosion. But more important will be to do deep dredging of the flood-and-erosion-prone rivers and make the embankments stronger to prevent those people from becoming homeless all of a sudden in the first place.