Illegal sand lifting from Kumar river poses threat
Illegal sand lifting from the Kumar river in Char Durgapur area under Ishan Gopalpur union of Sadar upazila poses a threat to agriculture and the people living along the river.
During a recent visit, this correspondent saw workers extracting sand from the riverbed with a diesel-run dredger. The sand is brought through plastic pipes to raise the level of lowland beside Ambikapur- Double Bridge road 50 metres away. The river banks on both side of dredging area are being devoured due to this.
Rezaul Sheikh, 39, a worker engaged in the sand lifting, said Kader Sheikh of Char Durgapur village has been lifting sand from the river.
“The dredger has been lifting 2,000 square feet to 2,500 square feet of sand daily from the riverbed. The dredger has been hired at the rate of Tk 2.30 for lifting one square foot of sand. We have been extracting sand for the last 15 days and another 10 days will be needed to fill the land,” Rezaul added.
“Kader Sheikh's land is being devoured, but we will suffer during rainy season,” said Hachen Fakir, 70, a resident of Char Durgapur village.
“We protested when they started sand lifting, but the workers told us our land would not be devoured,” said Salma Begum, 37, of the same village.
“We are lifting sand to raise the level of lowland as we will build our house there, but we did not get any permission from Water Development Board (WDB) for lifting sand from the river,” Shamsu Sheikh, son of Kader Shaeikh, said.
“We did not give any permission for lifting sand from the river at Char Durgapur area. We shall take steps against illegal sand lifting,” said district WDB Executive Engineer Sultan Mahmud.
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