Dredging Old Brahmaputra: Tk 2,763cr project crawling along

For nearly five years, the BIWTA has been dredging the Old Brahmaputra in Mymensingh to improve its navigability under a Tk 2,763 crore project, but only 26 percent of the project has been completed as of early May this year.

Green activists and civil society members say there has been no visible improvement in navigability since the dredging began.

"Navigability has worsened in some areas where dredging is taking place. The river has become narrower in some places," said Nazrul Islam Chunnu, convener of Janaudyog Mymensingh, a civil society platform.

The river is dying, he said.

The project deadline, which is set to expire this month, has already been extended by another year. However, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), the implementing agency of the project, will seek even more time.

The project titled "Navigability Improvement and Excavation of Old Brahmaputra" was aimed at dredging 227-kilometre river channel from Jamalpur's Dewanganj to Mymensingh's Gafargaon.

"The project deadline has already been extended by one year, but we need at least three more years to complete the work," Mohammad Mohsin Miah, executive engineer of BIWTA, told The Daily Star recently.

He blamed non-cooperation by a section of locals, erosion of the river and low water level for the slow progress.

There are some 47 small and large rivers in Mymensingh region. Of them, the Sutia, Shila, Banar, Khiru, Laithi, Norosunda, Kanchamatia, Aymon, Jhenai, Rangsa, and Arial Kha depend on the natural flow of the Old Brahmaputra.

But all these rivers are at risk of running dry as the Old Brahmaputra itself is on the brink of death, said Akhlak Ul Jamil, executive engineer of Water Development Board in Mymensingh.

Shibbir Ahmed Liton, general secretary of Poribesh Rokhha O Unnayan Andolon, said the 283km-long Old Brahmaputra is dying due to widespread encroachment and build-up of silt.

According to locals, the Old Brahmaputra had been a great source of fish and water for agriculture. Different local varieties of fish were available in the river, leading to hundreds of people relying on fishing as means of income.

The natural flow of the Old Brahmaputra must be ensured to maintain ecological balance and prevent environmental degradation, they said.

Nazrul, convener of Janaudyog Mymensingh, said dredging should ensure that the river can maintain a depth of at least 10 feet and a width of around 300 feet within the dredged channel during the dry season.

"During a meeting in 2022, project officials assured us that launches would be able to operate once the dredging is completed. However, we don't see how they will keep this promise. We are frustrated."

He said the Mymensingh deputy commissioner should hold a meeting with the officials of the local administration and the project, journalists and civil society representatives so people can know about the real progress of the project.

"We used to make our living from fishing in the Old Brahmaputra. But fishing has become difficult now as the river has become narrow," said Jamir Ali, a 70-year-old fisherman from Char Gobindapur village in Mymensingh Sadar upazila.

Large boats used to transport agricultural products along the river in the past, but nowadays only small boats are able to navigate, said Md Nowab Ali, a senior journalist from Char Haripur village in the same upazila.

Prof Anwarul Islam, an adviser to Janaudyog Mymensingh and also a former vice-chancellor of Bangladesh Agricultural University, said the project authorities should conduct dredging following the cadastral survey (CS) and mutation records to ensure permanent protection of the river area.

"We visited the upstream of the Old Brahmaputra in Jamalpur's Dewanganj upazila in 2009 and found a large shoal [char] covering around a 6km area," said Nurul Amin Kalam, general secretary of Mymensingh Zila Nagorik Andolon, a citizens' platform.

"We think the shoal gradually changed the natural flow of the river over the last three decades," he said.

Kalam said they recommended the authorities start dredging from Dewanganj, but the authorities turned a deaf ear to the advice.

"We think the project was not properly planned and has not achieved anything so far," he told The Daily Star recently.

Denying the allegation, BIWTA Executive Engineer Mohsin said the dredging is being carried out in a planned way according to the joint survey report of the Institute of Water Modelling and a Dutch firm.

He said many people, who have built houses on several shoals of the river, obstruct dredging, causing delay in the project work.

Mohsin said some project officials have recently visited the estuary of the Old Brahmaputra and talked to the locals and public representatives to speed up the dredging.

He expressed optimism that the river's water level will meet their expectations next year.