Embankments in Haors: Projects turn into plights
Ashik Miah, a 45-year-old farmer of Jaladhartupi village, was staring helplessly at his inundated paddy field as he sat beside Dekhar Haor at Dakshin Sunamganj upazila.
“I cultivated Boro on around one hectare of land taking loans from a local lender. But the flash flood washed away all my investment. How will I repay the loan and where will I stand with my family now?” lamented Ashik.
He was talking about his miseries when he threw a desperate glance at this correspondent and asked, “Who is responsible for the loss?”
Like Ashik Miah, 70-year-old farmer Rashid Miah, Rahim Uddin, Abdul Khalik and many others of Sunamganj experienced the same fate. Most of them had borrowed money either from local lenders or from different non-government organisations.
As they have lost their lone crop, their annual earning, the farmers can now see only a bleak future ahead.
Some of them have tried in vain to harvest the underwater crops dipping into waist-deep water. Most of them eventually found that the water level was much deeper than what they had anticipated.
Boro, the only crop of the haor areas in Sunamganj, has submerged due to untimely heavy rain followed by the flash flood that hit the areas on March 27, around 15 to 20 days before the harvest.
Though the government has taken an initiative to implement several projects of re-sectioning submersible embankments and repairing the damaged ones through the Water Development Board (WDB), the contractors who got the work allegedly did not deliver.
The farmers along with the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), local lawmakers and rights activists have blamed it on the WDB and the contractors, as the incomplete embankments could not save their Boro cultivation this year like the previous years.
Locals said the disaster could be avoided or, at least, minimised by manifolds if the repair and construction of the embankments in the haor areas were completed in time.
According to the WDB, two types of projects have been launched by the department to build and repair the embankments. This year, 76 projects have been taken up for re-sectioning of submersible embankments in different haors of Sunamganj, while another 238 projects were approved for as many Project Implementation Committees (PICs).
Both types of projects were supposed to be completed by this February 28, but the WDB extended the date to March 31.
More than 50 percent work of the PIC projects have been completed, while the projects under contractors were apparently in a mess as most of them did not even start the work and some others completed 30 to 50 percent.
However, farmers, rights activists and locals claim neither the projects of contractors nor the PICs started their work in time and could barely complete 10 to 20 percent of the work. They also claim the high officials of the WDB's Sylhet and Sunamganj offices' corruption is another big reason behind this.
According to DAE, 166,000 hectares of land was cultivated during this Boro season. Of the cultivated land, approximately 133,000 hectares of land submerged, causing huge loss to 250,000 farmers.
However, the farmers in the haor areas claim they have lost the season's cultivation.
Jahedul Haque, deputy director of DAE Sunamganj, told The Daily Star that the work of the embankments needed to be completed before March, but neglect by the WDB and the contractors caused the massive damage to the only Boro cultivation of the year.
Mouazzam Hossain Ratan, lawmaker of Sunamganj-1 constituency, told The Daily Star that local contractors backed by political leaders were responsible for the farmers' miseries.
The MP alleged that Khairul Huda Chapal, president of Sunamganj district unit Juba League, president of Sunamganj Chamber of Commerce and Industries and brother of Sunamganj Zilla Parishad Chairman Nurul Huda Mukut, Sajib Ranjan Das, vice-president of Sunamganj Chamber, and some other local contractors along with a section of WDB officials are mainly responsible for everything.
He added they have barely completed 10 percent of their designated work.
“I myself am a son of a farmer. I know the farmers will suffer for next three years as they have lost their only crop because of the neglect by the contractors and the Water Development Board officials,” the lawmaker said, adding, “They do not work but always get the money from the projects.”
He also alleged that local contractors have created a syndicate in connivance with the contractors from outside and had the contracts taken by the outsiders by sharing the benefits.
Contacted, Sajib Ranjan Das, contractor of nine projects of building embankments 89.09 kilometres in length, said he had completed around 50 percent of his work before the flash flood hit the haor areas.
Denying the allegations, he said the WDB had delayed in handing over some project areas.
Khairul Huda Chapal, contractor of three projects, said the PICs were mainly responsible for the loss and the project of re-sectioning of submersible embankment projects requires a long time. He added these projects mostly include new areas to build the embankments.
Sanjay Roy Chowdhury, chairman of Jayashree Union Parishad under Dharmapasha upazila and president of a PIC, said the committee's work was not responsible for the flash flood as the river overflowed and the water went beyond the safety level of the embankments.
Contacted, Abdul Hai, acting chief engineer of WDB, Sylhet, said the huge workload needed enough time for pre-procedure of the projects, but it had to be delayed for official reasons during evaluation and handing over the sites.
He put the blame on natural calamities and said the embankments were supposed to be 6.5 metres in height, but this year the floodwater flowed over 8.1 metres.
He admitted that some of the contractors and PICs could not start the work in time and most of them could not even complete the projects.
Denying the allegation of corruption, he said the WDB is in no way related to any kind of graft and they barely gave 15 to 16 percent of the fund to some contractors and 50 to 55 percent to the PICs.
He, however, said three committees have been formed by the ministry, board and the Anti-Corruption Commission to unearth corruption, if there is any.
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