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BENAPOLE, Apr 28: Persistent water-logging continues to spar public sufferings in Jashore' southeastern part Bhabadah which comprise parts of Abhaynagar, Manirampur, Keshabpur, Dumuria and Phultala upazilas of the district.
For the past four decades, water stagnation has plagued the area of 330 kilometres inhabited by 0.3 million people, causing immense suffering.
Every season, heavy rains intensify the water-logging situation. Some 35 villages in Abhaynagar, Manirampur and Keshabpur upazilas go under water.
In the last monsoon, crops on 25,000 hectares of land belonging to several thousand farmers were destroyed. In addition, fish from several thousand ponds were washed away by the current of water.
To solve the water-logging problem of Bhabadah, the Water Development Board, under the Sabujayaan project, installed 44 sluice gates at five places. Later 18 out of 21 gates were blocked due to silt accumulation.
As a result, the Mukteshwari, Srihari and Teka rivers have lost their navigability. Earlier, waters of 27 wetlands used to flow into the rivers through Bhabadah Beel.
Water-logging started after 1981. Sediment carried by the tide accumulate at the mouth of the sluice gates, narrowing down the rivers' course.
As a result, even with a little rain, the rivers overflow both banks and floods the plain area of the villages.
For this season, millions of people are waterlogged in the Keshabpur, Monirampur, Abhaynagar, and Dumuria regions, and 60 per cent of the people's houses are flooded.
Experts said to solve the water-logging problem of Bhabadah Beel, installing TRM, digging Amdanga Canal, and removing silt from the Wapdar sluice gate of Beel Khukshia are necessary to quickly resolve the water-logging of the 27 wetlands of the area.
The present government has started working to permanently solve the problem of water-logging in Bhabadah area of Jashore.
On April 22, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, advisor to the ministries of environment and water resources, Lt Gen (Retd) Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, adviser to the ministries of home affairs and agriculture, and Farooq-e-Azam, adviser to the ministry of disaster management and relief, visited Bhabadah area.
Travelling by road, the three advisers inspected the Bhabadah 21-vent sluice gate area built on the Sri River in Bhawanipur area of Abhaynagar.
Water Resources Adviser Rizwana Hasan said, "In some areas of Bhabadah, 20,000 hectares of land are under boro farming. We have been able to bring 17,000 hectares of land back under paddy cultivation with the collective efforts of everyone." "We have come to see the joy of paddy cultivation," she added.
"Similarly, we have started thinking about how to solve the waterlogging problem of Bhabadah permanently. Our government has been able to temporarily free 17,000 hectares of land from stagnant water through the combined efforts of several ministries."
Rizwana Hasan said, "We have taken up some interim works so that this year's monsoon does not bring suffering like the last year's."
"For example, after digging the Amdanga Canal, we will also start digging the three rivers - Hari, Bhadra and Upper Bhadra. The Bangladesh Army will do this. For now, the army will start digging these rivers so that water does not accumulate like last monsoon," she continued.
Syeda Rizwana Hasan also said that the ministry of power has made arrangements so that farmers do not have to pay for irrigation at commercial rates.
It is worth mentioning that in the sixties, the river from Bhabadah to Barohati was 150 to 200 meters wide; but in the past few years, it has now come down to only 15 to 20 meters. Its depth is 3 to 5 feet.
The Delta 21 Project was undertaken during the previous government's tenure, but the people of Bhabadah did not get any benefit from it. One of the reasons for this was that the water-logging problem could not be solved due to malpractice of the local influential people.
After independence, many projects were undertaken to remove water-logging of Bhabadah Beel; but those were unplanned and flawed and had some loopholes.
Therefore, Bhabadah Beel is to be considered now a death trap for Jashore.
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