The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved on Tuesday a very important and timely project.
The 'Countrywide pond and canal development project' involving an estimated cost of Tk 13.34 billion (1,334.95 crore), will help preserve surface water through development and re-excavation of ponds and canals.
As per the survey, the country has about 14,910 khas ponds, 3,493 institutional ponds and 6,536 khas canals. Out of those, 921 Khas canals (2,372 km) and 1,611 institutional ponds (1702 acres) will be re-excavated.
On implementation, it would help preserve surface water, improve the drainage system and forest management through tree plantation and thus maintain the environmental balance and help contain the flood and rainwater.
The Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) under the Local Government Division (LGD) will implement the pond and canal development project by June 2023 in 400 upazilas under 56 districts of eight divisions.
The project is very important for our agriculture. The agriculture is plagued by the twin problem of drought during the dry session and floods during monsoon.
In spite of a large network of rivers and canals across the country all the arable land cannot be fully utilized during the dry session. On the other hand, during monsoon huge crops are washed away by floods.
In this year’s flood, more than 600,000 hectares of farmland have been partially damaged, according to the disaster minister. Corps on 10,000 hectares of lands have been completely washed away.
Bangladesh, the world’s fourth-biggest rice producer, has emerged a major importer of the grain this year after flash floods in April and August. As a result, the country is facing dwindling stocks and high local prices.
At least 134 have died in monsoon flooding which is believed to have submerged at least a third of the country.
Bangladesh's economy is dependent on farming and the country lost around a million tonnes of rice in flash floods in April. Approximately 4.0 million people were affected and 531,517 houses damaged in 24 districts in the flood.
However, the Bangladesh government has taken a lot of such big projects. The country has now more development projects than it ever had.
But with the repeated missing of deadlines, it appears unlikely that those involved with the projects were well equipped to execute them in a professional manner. Extension of deadline also pushed up the project costs. Sometimes it increased more than 50 per cent.
The country built a lot of river embankments across the country. But many of those collapsed this year which caused further sufferings.
The ponds and canal digging project is good and timely, no doubt, but the people of the country will get the real benefit on proper implementation of the project. Repeated deadline extension will intensify the suffering of the people.
Strict monitoring during the implementation of the project should be ensured so that no irregularity can take place.-AR