Most Tangail rivers remain dry for six months

Dried up bed of Jamuna River at Palshia in Bhuapur upazila of Tangail district is being used for paddy cultivation. Most of the rivers in the district show similar pictures during the dry season as silting and pollution are leading them to gradual death. Photo: STAR

Most of the rivers in Tangail district are heading towards virtual death as the riverbeds remain waterless for nearly half of the year.
While the country is observing World Water Day today farmers are using the dried up river beds for cultivating different crops including boro paddy, arranging irrigation by setting up shallow engine pumps there.
In some places there are some flow but it is so polluted that it cannot be used for any purposes including irrigation to crop fields.
Vehicles including sand-laden ones are seen plying the dried up riverbeds.
The main rivers in Tangail district are Jamuna, Dhaleswari, Jhinai, Bonshai, Louhajang and Elengjani.
The rivers were full of a variety of fishes while ships, launches, big merchant boats plied the rivers that had huge flow throughout the year only about three decades ago, said several senior citizens.
River ways were used as means of easy and cheap transportation of goods from and to the district, they said.
Big merchandizing boats laden with thousands of maunds of jute from different districts came to the ghats of different rivers in the district including Elasin ghat on the Dhaleswari River in Delduar upazila and Nolin ghat in Gopalpur upazila as many governmental and non-governmental jute purchase centres were set up there.
But all these are past stories and now only some small engine boats can ply the same rivers during the dry season. As only a little water is available during about half of the year, the river transportation system in the district is in a disorder.
Water expert engineer SI Khan, also a resident of Basail upazila in the district, told The Daily Star that the amount of water flow in Jamuna River has reduced a lot due to withdrawal of water from the upstream.
The situation affects other rivers in the district including the Dhaleswari that has also silted up and as a result, their water containing capacity has greatly reduced, he added.
Riverside fishermen and boatmen communities, who are mainly dependent on the rivers for their livelihood, are the direct victims of drying up of the rivers during the ongoing dry season.
The rivers now see very little fish resources as their sanctuaries have been destroyed.
"Although most of the rivers in Tangail district are dying no step is yet to be seen to save them. Besides losing navigability, the rivers are victims of mindless pollution and grabbing by influential quarters," said environmental activist Masum Ferdous in Tangail.