Flawed development

When Pabna's Sujanagar municipal authority announced plans to relocate the town's weekly market away from the main road to reduce congestion residents were pleased. But the relocation site is a stretch of the thirty-kilometre public canal and flood protection embankment that runs to Najirganj Bazar. The municipality is yet to complete the land purchase. As the market and other establishments have colonised the canal, water flow has ceased. Farmland irrigation is affected. The canal's destruction potentially exacerbates flood and fire risks.

“On 16 March 2017, the Bangladesh Water Development Board issued a no objection certificate for the municipality to use the canal in such a way,” says Sujanagar's mayor, Abdul Wahab. “We are still negotiating the price to acquire the land.”

Asked about the legality of spending public development funds on the market relocation prior to transfer of the land's ownership, the mayor says road construction and sand-filling works by contractors are proceeding on condition that the land acquisition will occur. The municipality meanwhile has already inaugurated the new market.

“The mayor is also the upazila secretary for Awami League,” notes one resident, Md Shahinuzzaman Shahin. “People were reticent to object when they started to fill the canal.

The mayor assured us the market relocation was legal. But when the mayor tried to lease out the land we protested because canal water flow has been stopped.”The mayor says there is no water circulation problem since there is another canal behind the market site.

But the market is not the only development on canal land. The Daily Star observed that at Kuripara Point over a hundred shops including some concrete buildings have been constructed. At Sutkar More Point, Ayub Market has been built by an influential businessman. At other locations including Gupinpur, Vitbila and Satbaria similar encroachment is to be found.

A number of schools also occupy canal land. One is the college in Malifa village established by Bangladesh Nationalist Party lawmaker Selim Reza Habib.

The playing fields of the Shahida Jalil Technical BM School and College, opened in 2016, likewise occupy up to three acres of canal land in Najirganj Bazar. “There is no problem with water flow,” assures that school's headmaster, Md Khalilur Rahman. “We have a plan to construct a new drain to ensure smooth water flow.”

Locals disagree. “Since the canal has been filled, irrigation water has been unavailable for farmers,” says one member of Najirganj union council, Tipu Munshi. “Over 500 bighas of cropland in three villages have been adversely impacted.”

Sujanagar municipality's engineer with the Bangladesh Water Development Board, Abdul Hamid, refused to comment specifically on the municipal market project. “Without seeing the official documents I can't say anything,” he said.

“In general,” he continued, “since we constructed the flood protection embankment and canal in the 1980s, different people have leased parts of the canal for various purposes. We have provided leases for fishing projects, for example. But to halt water flow is strictly prohibited. If any such allegation proves true, we will cancel the lease.”