Eid brings no cheers for 5 lakh in 2 dists

No effective step is still in sight to mitigate sufferings of a large number of people affected by perennial waterlogging in the Kobadak basin in Satkhira district and Sharsha upazila in Jessore district.

The Eid-ul-Azha tomorrow brings no cheers for about three lakh people of 174 villages in 20 unions of Tala, Kalaroa and Satkhira Sadar upazilas as they could not cultivate aman in the current season due to waterlogging, reports our Satkhira correspondent.

Rain water and water from the River Kabodak remained stagnant in the nearby areas as the silted up river could not absorb and flow out rainwater during the rainy season.

A large number of people, rendered homeless due to the waterlogging, are still staying on high lands or roadside.

Most of the farmers and day labourers in the affected areas could hardly do any Eid shopping.

As many middle class people could not buy sacrificial animals, the prices of cattle are reportedly downward.

The waterlogging makes life of about three lakh people in Satkhira district miserable as flooding recurs every year with spiralling ferocity but the authorities failed to excavate the silted river Kabodak to ease its flow.

Encroachment by land grabbers and raising of bamboo barriers by so-called fish farmers have worsened the situation, reducing the Kabodak to merely water pockets at places, said Tapan Kumar Saha, chairman of Joynagar union parishad (UP) and Anwarul Islam, chairman of Deara UP in Kalaroa upazila.

A correspondent reports from Benapole: About two lakh people living in 120 villages of bordering Sharsha upazila have been suffering from waterlogging for the last 20 years due to silting of Ichhamoti River.

A 13-kilometre Makhla-Ichhamoti canal was dug during the later part of Pakistan period to drain out water of six beels (large water bodies) -- Thengramari, Makhla, Kemi, Deye, Dadkhali and Setai and make the area cultivable.

During 1996-98, Sonamukhi canal was connected with Makhla-Ichhamoti canal by excavating about 10 kilometres from Makhla beel to Amrakhali.

Silt started depositing in the Ichhamoti River and the bed of the beel gradually went up as the water of vast low-lying land and big beels in Sharsha Bonmandar and Sonamukhi flows into Ichhamoti canal in the rainy season following excavation of the canals, said Rabiul Hossain, a member of Goga union parishad.

Water from India coming through the river also flows into Ichhamoti River, adding to the floodas in 120 villages in Makhla, Setai, Kemi, Deye and Dadkhali beel areas.