Farmland being fed with sand

Life and livelihood of elderly Nazimuddin Mollah of east Kandargaon in Sonargaon of Narayanganj is entirely dependent on his agricultural land.

His family has lived on the land for generations. 

  “We have for ages lived on three crops cultivated on the land in addition to catching naturally-grown fish during the monsoon and we have no other means of livelihood,” he said.

The land had been filled with sand in three years since 2009.

Now with all his 16 bighas of ancestral agricultural land in Char Bhabanathpur and Bhatibanda moujas filled with sand, he has not been able to harvest any crops for the last seven years. 

“For all these years, I along with my family have survived somehow from hand to mouth only with the meagre income of my sons,” said a weeping Nazimuddin while talking to this correspondent in his village.   

Private real-estate company Unique Property Development Ltd had embarked on a massive earth filling in a part of the Meghna river, adjoining low-lying wetland and multi-crop fertile land to make way for a resort city in six moujas including Jainpur, Chhoehishya, Pirojpur and Ratanpur.

The company has a contract with local land brokers to procure 2,350 bighas agricultural land for its project.

“It is not merely land; it is our way of life,” said Enaeyt Ullah Mollah, who is organising the affected locals to protect their ancestral agricultural land, “The government should consider economic zone on barren land, not destroying fertile agricultural land.”

Over 12,000 inhabitants of 10 villages in the six moujas are dependent on their land, he said, adding that of the total 2,350 bighas of arable land in the six moujas, 1,500 bighas are under IRRI cultivation schemes of the government.

But two IRRI schemes in Char Bhabanathpur and Bhatibandha have already been destroyed due to the sand filling while four have been damaged, he said.

The local community is solely dependent on agriculture like paddy, jute, chillies and oil seeds while during monsoon fish are caught from the same land, he said.

The Department of Environment (DoE) in late October 2011 penalised the company with Tk 50 lakh in fines for causing what it termed a colossal damage to agriculture, environment and marine ecology on a part of the Meghna, its bank and floodplains.

The company paid the penalty.  

The High Court in March 2014 gave an order against such destruction of ecologically-sensitive land in the said moujas and put an injunction on causing any further damage to the villagers so largely dependent on agriculture.

The developer stalled the move only to come back within a couple of years with one of its sister concerns -- Unique Hotel and Resorts Ltd -- to develop a private economic zone styled Sonargaon Economic Zone at the same site.

With a pre-qualification issued by Bangladesh Economic Zone Authority (BEZA) for the said private economic zone in late August, Unique Hotel and Resorts Ltd resumed the filling of the same land in late September this year while the act was still expressly forbidden by the HC order.

A private economic zone, if implemented destroying a vast swathe of fertile agricultural wetland, would simply deprive the locals of their livelihoods, the villagers said.       

“We will turn into just street beggars if we lose our agricultural land,” said Raza Miah of Kandargaon village, who said he has lost eight bighas of ancestral agricultural land to the sand filling.    

They want to forcibly take the locals' agricultural land at low prices, he said.

“We don't want to sell our ancestral land we live on; we have so much childhood memories of growing crops and catching fish from the Meghna river during the monsoon and have lived a happy life but now it has been eight years we cannot enter our land,” he said.   

Mostafa Kamal, of east Kandargaon, said, “My family has been dependent on our ancestral agricultural land for 45 years and my next generation too is dependent on it. Our locality is predominantly dependent on agricultural land, as it lacks other employment.”  

Md Yusuf Ali of Kandargaon echoed the same.  

Mohammad Noor Ali, managing director of Unique Hotel and Resorts Ltd and Unique Property Development Ltd, said, “I don't think there is any opposition by the locals anymore. Locals are now very much in favour of our scheme.”  

As to why they embarked on earth filling again despite the HC injunction, he said, “We just lined up earth filling equipment in late September but halted doing anything, as the upazila administration forbade it.”

The economic zone would create employment with an energy hub, LPG depot, motorbike manufacturing, 400MW power plant and petrochemical industries, he claimed.

Responding to another question, he said that it was natural that the adjoining lands would be covered with sand when a particular piece of land was being filled.

“I cannot deny, in some cases, that others' land were filled while filling up our own land,” he said.

He said they have so far procured 350 acres with a target to buy 450 acres for the economic zone.

“If two economic zones on two sides [on the North and South of his site] were not problems, why should the newly proposed one be a problem?” he said.

Bela Chief Executive Syeda Rizwana Hasan, who filed a writ petition for the HC injunction on land filling, said problem lies with the fact that the entire proposed site is on a part of the Meghna river, wetland and canals and fertile agricultural land, which are covered under government's IRRI rice cultivation scheme.

The way they were going ahead only implies that the aim of filling up the agricultural and wetland remains the same with just another company of the same group, she said, it was also important to look at how a company styled Unique Hotel and Resorts can establish an economic zone.

Meanwhile, the BEZA secretary in late September this year requested the Deputy Commissioner of Narayanganj to facilitate the sand filling of land for the economic zone. 

The deputy commissioner in a letter on October 9 said they had already informed the BEZA executive chairman that there was no scope for allowing the filling of agricultural land for an economic zone in the said moujas.

The DC also mobilised the upazila administration and local police to stop the illegal sand filling in violation of the HC injunction.    

It was surprising that the BEZA official made such a formal request with the HC injunction still in effect and before granting final licence for the economic zone, said Rizwana.    

Granting pre-qualification for economic zone on land of such characters was grossly inappropriate in the light of the HC injunction, DoE penalty and BIWTA report, she said.

BEZA Secretary Mohammad Ayub said, “We were not aware of the HC embargo, as the applicant did not declare it.”

As to the site selection, he said the final licence would depend on environmental clearances.

According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics findings, the country is losing agricultural land at a rate of around 1 percent every year and is apprehended to lose a third of its agricultural land in next 25 years unless the trend is halted.  

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in April this year at Krishibid Institution said the government would not allow indiscriminate industrialisation destroying cultivable land and forests.

She also said industries would be accommodated in 100 special economic zones to be built across the country.