Bhabadah's tale of waterlogging woe
"We don't want relief; we want permanent solution," said Safia Khanam who, like several lakh other people, has been suffering due to tidal water that remains stagnant in Bhabadah area on the country's south-western part for most of the year.
At a public hearing, the woman in her 40s was describing how people, surrounded by water, go about their everyday life. The hearing was organised on "Government initiatives to solve waterlogging in Abhaynagar-Manirampur-Keshabpur region and people's demand" in the capital's Brac Centre Inn.
Many women in the affected area suffer from various skin diseases. Families live in constant fear that their toddlers may get bitten by snakes or drown, said Safia, an inhabitant of Abhaynagar of Jessore.
Doing routine jobs are so full of troubles that woman eat less to avoid going to toilets.
The situation is more or less similar for the past 20 years.
"How long life can go on like this?” said Safia at the hearing organised by the Association for Land Reform and Development and Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers' Association in association with Water Rights Forum.
All the participants, mostly residents of Abhaynagar, Manirampur, Keshabpur of Jessore, demanded an immediate end to their ordeal that had become worse in June 2012 following the suspension of Tidal River Management (TRM) in Beel Kapalia area of Manirampur.
The TRM is a natural water management process that local people adopted in late 1970s against the backdrop of perpetual waterlogging during rains and high tides. According to this, beels are connected to the river system so that large volumes of water can flow into them during tidal upsurge and retreats leaving sediment in the beels, thus keeping the river bodies alive.
The participants at the hearing demanded that the government declare Bhabadah an “affected area”.
The TRM is the only solution to waterlogging in Bhabadah that covers five upazilas of Jessore and Khulna, they said. But a vested quarter and a handful of influential people have been obstructing the implementation of the TRM in their own interests.
The situation has turned acute this year after heavy rains in August, said Babu Krishnapado Dutta, chairman of 4-no Payra Union in Abhaynagar.
Things will become disastrous next year if the TRM is not re-introduced by the mid of Bangla month Magh, he added.
Mizanur Rahman, a student, said schools and colleges in his area remain shut for months, badly hampering their education.
"Everything is on the verge of ruin. Our homes, land, schools; everything. We have become broke," said Shekhar Chandra Roy, chairman of Mashiati Union.
Chittaranjan Roy, an inhabitant of Abhaynagar, said people of the area could not cultivate Aus rice for the last 20 years due to waterlogging. "Our only appeal is to save us.”
Mahfuzur Rahman, additional director of the Water Development Board, said the authority could not implement the water management method in Beel Kapalia due to opposition from local people.
The TRM was suspended following a clash in 2012. Jatiya Sangsad Whip Sheikh Abdul Wahab went to Beel Kapalia to inaugurate the TRM, but his motorcade came under attack by some fish farmers and traders who make their livelihood centring on the beel.
Mahfuzur said a study was on on how to solve the problem of the south-western region, which would be completed by December.
Dr Shahjahan Mandal, professor of the Institute of Water and Flood Management, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, said the TRM is an effective technology.
Echoing his view, Swapan Bhattacharya, a lawmaker of Jessore-5, said the TRM should be implemented soon as the issue of compensating people to be affected by its implementation had been resolved.
However, Water Resources Minister Anisul Islam Mahmud said it would not be possible to implement the TRM this season as the authority was yet to complete the study.
"But we'll take every possible step so that people don't face any problem next year," he said, adding that more excavators would be sent to the region until the problem was over.
Urging all not to use the issue to their political advantage, he asked local representatives to come up with suggestions on compensation package.
The permanent solution for the region is Ganges barrage, which the government will construct soon, the minister said.
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