At least 19 rivers flowing across the country’s northeast region are losing normal flows due to disturbances in the upstream and poor water management, affecting agriculture, fisheries and navigability.
Experts and officials say vast stretches of char (shoals) have emerged on two-thirds of the riverbed of the Surma and the Kushiyara – two rivers that eventually flow into the Meghna system – during the current dry season.
These rivers and their tributaries that form complex basin areas have turned into playgrounds and barren land in many places. Underground water level, too, has gone down and about two percent water bodies other than rivers have died, local engineers and rights groups say.
An Indo-Bangladesh initiative to carry out dredging after conducting a survey of the trans-boundary rivers like the Surma and the Kushiyara and the Barak on the Indian side still remains on paper. Obstruction in the upstream in different ways is causing depletion of major rivers in Sylhet region,” Professor Aktaruzzaman of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) told daily sun.
He said the current insufficiency in the water flows cannot be solved until or unless the rivers are properly dredged by the co-riparian countries.
About disturbance in the upstream, Dr Abdul Awal Biswas, head of Anthropology Department at SUST, pointed out that the Surma receives only 20 percent flow from the Barak which enters Bangladesh as the Surma and the Kushiyara from Indian state of Assam.
“We are seriously concerned at the poor flow of the regional rivers of national importance. We strongly recommend joint dredging of the rivers and demand our due share of water,” he added.
The Indo-Bangladesh Joint Rivers Commission (JRC) had in October, 2010 decided to conduct a joint survey of the Barak, Surma and Kushiyara rivers during the dry season, but the survey is yet to start, Rafiqul Islam, an executive engineer of Bangladesh Water Development Board, confirmed.
“We are trying to dredge the rivers in our territory,” he said referring to the Kushiyara-Kalni Dredging project at a cost of Tk 6.10 billion to improve the flow of these rivers.
The JRC meet had for the first time in 1999 agreed on dredging rivers. It objective was to save Bangladesh land from severe erosion, increasing the flow of the Kushiyara and the Surma, and maintain ecological balance in the vast tracts of Barak valley inside India.
Despite a 2005 decision to carry out a joint survey and model study on the common rivers, activities of the regional JRC remained suspended due to inaction on India’s part, said officials concerned.
A regional survey by the water board has measured the total riverbed area in Sylhet at 39,124 hectares and found emergence of shoals in many river routes affecting navigability.
Such routes include Manumukh-Jokiganj-Amolsid route in the Kushiyara river, Chandipur-Jamalpur-Digalbak-Sherpur route in the Bibiana river, Jalalpur-Kosba route in Jalalpur river, Isapur-Pailgow-Ranigonj route in Kalni river, Modna-Sreeayeel route in Old Surma river, Tukergow-Sunamganj-Golapganj-Jokiganj route in Surma river, Beraura-Guala route in Manu river, Sukhair-Maksudpur-Nowa Para-Fajilpur route in Boula river, Maksudpur-Sonbari route in Khairanala river, Guala-Anwarpur route in Patlai river and Balijuri-Anwarpur route in Jadukata river.
The siltation of the rivers also affects haor (marshland) areas in Sunamganj district, which often meets with flash floods due to sudden onrush of waters in the early part of monsoon, experts say.
About a dozen indigenous varieties of sweat-water fish, once available in water bodies in Sylhet region, are now almost extinct, said a recent study of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA). The ‘extinct’ fish varieties include Rani, Moha Shoul, Kali Baush, Meni, Pata Baim, Chitra Shoul and Lamdin. Popular variety of Chital is also struggling to survive nowadays.
“We are losing opportunities of catching fish in the open water bodies as fish resources are getting scarce,” Yusuf Miah of Haydarpur village in Sylhet Sadar said, adding that many fishermen would be compelled to give up their occupation, should the trends of decline continue.
Hussain Jamal, an engineer of Sylhet City Corporation, claimed that underground water level in the city and surrounding areas has gone up to 80 feet down due to lack of recharge of waters.
Expressing concerns at the moribund conditions of the rivers, Sylhet region’s general secretary of Sushashaner Jonno Nagorik (Sujon) Faruk Mahmud Chowdhury emphasised the need for a long-term master plan to save the river.
Furthermore, unplanned dredging of rivers by groups of stone traders has now been disturbing the normal course of the Piayeen river in Jaflong, which is also a popular tourist spot due to its scenic beauty.
Shaheda Aktar, regional manager of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) alleged that a section of traders had been using ‘boom’ machine to collect stones ignoring the High Court’s directive. Such practice, she said, is causing long-term losses to environment and livelihoods of the people in the river basin.
News Source:
The Daily Sun