‘UP chairman’s illegal sand lifting’ blamed for recurring Jamuna erosion

Inhabitants of Gorilabari village in Kalihati upazila are experiencing a second wave of erosion of the Jamuna only two months apart.

The affected area is only several hundred metres south of the Bangabandhu Multipurpose Bridge’s guide embankment and about a kilometre away from the bridge itself.

The recent erosion over the last three days has destroyed at least five dwellings and it is threatening another 10 structures along the river bank.

On October 8 and 9 this year, at least 20 houses and a part of a local road were lost to the river in the same area.

In 2018, around 50 dwellings and an embankment built by the Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA) were also destroyed in erosion of the Jamuna at Gorilabari village.

The rise in the intensity and frequency of the river’s erosion is due to rampant lifting of sand, from the river next to the village, by a syndicate led by Hazrat Ali Talukder, chairman of Gohaliabari Union Parishad, alleged the affected villagers.

They said although they staged a number of protests against the illegal sand lifting by Hazrat Ali and his accomplices, no action was taken against them as they have “blessings of powerful politicians”. 

Adding to their sufferings, Hazrat Ali and a few of his followers stopped the BBA from building a new embankment to protect the village from further erosion, claimed the villagers.

Ahsanul Kabir Pavel, executive engineer (river direction) of BBA site office in Tangail, said the BBA could not start construction work of a 450-metre-long new embankment from Gorilabari Pathar Ghat due to objection raised by several villagers under the leadership of UP Chairman Hazrat Ali.

The BBA decided to build the embankment at a cost of Tk 33 core after the villagers petitioned the BBA for a solution to the erosion problem in the area. 

Work order for the project has already been issued to joint venture firms Rana Builders and Shahid and Brothers, Ahsanul said, adding that after 100 metres of fresh area went in the river in the last few days, they started dumping Geotextile bags in the affected areas as a means to check further erosion. 

Contacted, BBA Superintendent Engineer Tofazzal Hossain said acting on a petition made by around 250 villagers, they undertook the new embankment project in Gorilabari village, although the area does not fall under the jurisdiction of the BBA.

A few of the villagers might have raised objection to the work for their petty interests, but the BBA was making all necessary preparations for the construction of the embankment as they were hopeful of completing the work through reaching an amicable resolution, he also said.  

When reached for his comment over the allegations raised against him, Gohaliabari UP Chairman Hazrat Ali said he is no longer involved in sand lifting.

Admitting that he and several other villagers initially raised objection to the construction of the new embankment in Gorilabari village as it would be built on their land, Hazrat Ali said he did not have any reservation against it any more.