Coastal embankment requires more investment
We believe there is merit in the call of the experts urging the government to protect the vast multitude of people living in coastal areas by providing budgetary allocation for embankment under the local government. The experts, participating in a virtual conference also called upon the government to allocate at least Tk 12,000 crore per year for embankment construction.
Every year there is accretion of sediments adding to our land mass in the delta region. And demographic pressure compels people to seek newer pastures here. Coastal areas are susceptible to cyclones and surges that wreak severe damage to both land and homestead.Cyclone Amphan last month, caused major damage to the coastal embankment washing away parts and inflicting cracks or breaches in many other points through which sea water entered inside the embankment, inundating dwellings of hundreds of people.
It is not that the government is not alive to the problem. It has several coastal embankment projects under various nomenclatures. There was the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) implemented during the 1960s and early 1970. And following the two severe cyclones, SIDR and AILA, that hit the coastal zone with devastating effect, the Coastal Embankment Improvement Project, and under it various other schemes, were formulated with international financing.
But the problem is that the long network of embankments, running into hundreds of miles, seldom stands a storm surge. The standard of work and of course poor quality of construction materials combine to render these protection measures brittle. There is need to construct newer embankments every year, apart from regular repair and maintenance.
Storms and storm surges are things we have to live with. The problem has been compounded even more by the climate change phenomenon which lays the vast swathe of the coast vulnerable to submersion permanently. And these embankments suffer damage not only due to natural causes but by human activity also.
We believe that there is logic in the suggestion that the allocation be made to the local government. That would make repair work easier to manage and oversee, and the reaction to damage can be quicker than what we have seen in the recent past. The post-Amphan scenario is a case in point. Coastal embankments require regular repair and maintenance, and thus incremental funding, under this head specifically.
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