Rivers' ravage

When a cyclone hits human habitats, some belongings remain on the homestead, ashes remain when a house is gutted by fire, but nothing is left over when river erosion occurs," the great political leader Maulana Bhasani once said while describing the woes of the river erosion victims of the country.
River erosion is a silent natural calamity that occurs every year at the onset of the monsoon, causing limitless woes to large numbers of people. Rivers devour human habitats, markets, schools and colleges, mosques, churches, temples and huge chunks of cultivable land. People owning houses, cattle and paddy become paupers overnight, losing everything in the river erosion.
The catastrophe of river erosion is unlike other natural calamities like cyclones, floods, tornadoes, tidal bores, droughts and downpours. The affected people of these calamities have the chance for rehabilitation in their own homesteads, but it is impossible for river erosion victims as they lose everything in the erosion.
Erosion is a common catastrophe along all the major rivers in Bangladesh. The devastating erosion by the rivers Padma, Meghna, Brahmaputra, Teesta and Jamuna has rendered thousands of people homeless and devoured vast tracts of land on either side in Pabna, Serajganj, Faridpur, Munshiganj, Rangpur and Chandpur districts.
The Padma has engulfed the Lauhajang upazila complex, land record office and some other public and private establishment in Munshiganj district. Erosion of Padma has also taken a serious turn in Bhadarganj upazila at Shariatpur district, making large numbers of people homeless and devouring vast tracts of cropland.
Chandpur is another place badly hit by river erosion. Erosion by the Meghna has been threatening the very existence of Chandpur, the biggest river port of the country. The Meghna, the Padma and the Dakatia rivers have devoured properties worth Tk 500 crore at Chandpur since 1972. Nearly Tk 350 crore have so far been spent to protect Chandpur, but all efforts have gone in vain for lack of strategic planning.
Erosion by Jamuna has taken a turn for the worse in five upazilas of Sirajganj district, devouring many structures and establishments. Jamuna has eroded around 450 homesteads and 270 acres of cropland in the past week, and forced many people of the area to move to safer places.
At least 2,842 hectares of cropland on the banks of the Jamuna and the Padma along with 31 educational institutions are likely to disappear this year due to river erosion. A UNDP survey, based on satellite images prepared by Centre for Environment and Geographic Information Service, revealed the fact in April this year. Around 3,970 hectares of land and 40 educational institutions along with five government offices were eroded by these two rivers last year.
Bangladesh has been losing land to India and Myanmar due to border-river erosion. The border-rivers Surma and Kushiara have changed their directions, shifting from the original border line to inside Bangladesh territory, resulting in a loss of huge land to India. River Mahananda in Chapinawabganj and Muhuri in Feni are also eroding their banks on the Bangladesh side. According to a government estimate, the country has already lost nearly 15,000 hectares of its land due to erosion caused by 15 common rivers with India and Myanmar.
The border-rivers while changing their directions are eroding Bangladesh's land and adding it to India and Myanmar as the border runs along the middle of the border-rivers. The ountry's map set in 1974 after the Indira-Mujib border treaty, has now been changing as the authorities concerned have failed to take adequate measures to protect our territory from erosion. The Indian side of the rivers, however, is well bulwarked against erosion.
River erosion was not recognised as a natural calamity by our government until 1993, though erosion causes terrible havoc every year. Nearly 10 million people have become homeless and destitute in the northern districts of the country during the past 20 years. The number of river erosion victims who have become landless exceeded two million in greater Faridpur district alone.
Those who are rendered homeless and landless usually migrate to city slums. Some of them also shift to roadside shacks. They become day labourers, rickshaw pullers and beggars. Some, especially the young men and girls, get involved in anti-social activities for earning their livelihood. Some become carriers of drugs and smuggled goods. But there has not been any initiative either by the government or other organisations for their rehabilitation.
Ironically, the vast majority of river erosion victims do not get the support of Diluvion-Alluvion Act that was adopted on June 28, 1972 and amended in 1994, for helping the helpless victims of river erosion to get back their land lost by erosion. Only the powerful people and some touts are getting benefit of the Act in grabbing such lands in exchange of bribes to land-office men.
River erosion in riverine Bangladesh is a veritable curse, and a recurrent fact rather than a freak event. Human miseries due to river erosion are much deeper than from any other natural calamities, as the erosion victims lose their homes and croplands altogether.
According to available information, more than 250,000 people become victims of river erosion every year, and annual economic loss stands at Tk one thousand crore. An Asian Development Bank report says that river erosion makes at least one lakh people landless every year in Bangladesh.
Most alarming is that over 1,000 hectares of land are lost to rivers every year, in addition to 1% of total cultivable land for construction of houses and infrastructures. Only two rivers, the Jamuna and the Padma have engulfed 156,780 hectares of land since 1973, and 2,842 hectares of farmland are likely to disappear into these two rivers this year. The country will lose one-fourth of its total cultivable land by 2020 if we fail to check this.
At least 45 districts will face severe river erosion this year, and some 29,000 people living in the vicinity of the ferocious rivers are likely to lose their homesteads by erosion, said a government prediction report. Out of 48 lakh floating people in the country, 40 lakh are the victims of river erosion. The government has spent Tk 4,500 thousand crore during the last 35 years for containing river erosion, but achievement was quite meager as most of the money was misused.
Yearly bouts of river erosion with all the devastating consequences take heavy toll on the fragile economy of Bangladesh. Sadly, we have yielded to rivers' ravage in an era of technological supremacy, when most of the countries have successfully tamed their ferocious rivers using high technology. We also need to formulate a national river-bank policy for security of the lives and properties of the people living alongside the rivers.

A. N. M. Nurul Haque is a columnist of The Daily Star.