Half a decade under water

Around 120 villages in the Bhabadah region in Jashore and Khulna are still under water, even as winter marches.

Not only are the croplands belonging to the 1.5 lakh people of this region flooded, even their homesteads are under waist-to-knee deep water.

"Our homes have been under water for half-a-decade. Our lives are just an endless series of misery," said Shefali Biswas of Dahar Mashihati village under Monirampur upazile of Jashore.

She said while water recedes a little bit during winter, it never disappears completely, putting homes like Shefali's tin-roofed residence, which is under knee deep water even after it's built at three feet height from the ground. Their cowshed is also built in high to avoid the inundation.

"I have no way to cultivate paddy in my three-bigha land, which is under five-to-six feet water," said Swaran Biswas of Sujatpur village in Monirampur. "I'm forced to lease out the space for fish farming for Tk 140,000 per year, although this is not a satisfactory amount."

"Since we can't farm our crop lands, nor do we have to money to buy feed, we can only feed our cattle with water hyacinths," said Khokon Mandol, of Dahar Mashihati village.

Ranojit Bauali, convener of Bhabadah Pani Niskashan Sangram Committee, said the situation worsened this year after the heavy rains of September.

"Even my house [at Dumurtola village in Abhaynagar] is still under knee-deep water," he said.

The Bhabadah region comprises of around 52 beels in Jashore Sadar, Abhaynagar, Monirampur, and Keshabpur upazilas of Jashore and Dumuria upazila of Khulna. These areas, especially villages adjacent to the beels, remain largely inundated, especially during the rainy season.

The water logged villages in Jashore fall under Kultia, Nehalpur, Haridaskati, Manoharpur and Dhakuria unions of Monirampur upazila; Sundali, Cholishia, Prembag and Payra unions in Abhaynagar upazila; Durbadanga union in Keshabpur upazila; while from Khulna some parts of Dumuria upazila are still under water, said Ranojit.

During a recent visit to Monirampur and Abhaynagar upazilas , this correspondent found that only the roads in these villages were above the water, while almost everything else was inundated.

People were seen using small boats or bamboo or coconut tree-made single line bridges to reach their homes from the roads.

However, for an area so marooned, heavy activity was seen at large fish farms of the area.

According to Anil Biswas, adviser of the Bhabadah Pani Niskashan Sangram Committee, the Mukteshwari, Teka, Hari, and Sree rivers, which originate mainly from the Bhairab, pass through the Bhabadah region carrying excessive sediment and deposit this on the riverbed during high tide.

Once the riverbed rises, so does the water level of the surrounding beels, which blocks drainage in the region, leading to the whole region becoming waterlogged.

Experts and local activists say tidal river management (TRM) approach, proven to be the most effective way of relieving waterlogging in similar regions, is ignored by the Water Development Board (WDB).

Through this approach, an embankment is built around a beel, leaving two cut-points for water to enter and recede from. When the water recedes during low tide, it takes the sediment deposited on the riverbed in a process of natural excavation.

Ignoring this approach, WDB in Jashore has been trying to solve the longstanding problem by pumping out stagnant water using 20 pumps. The project began since the beginning of 2021 at a cost of Tk 2.5 crore.

However, Md Tauhidul Islam, executive engineer of Jashore WDB, said the project is not successful in its aim yet, as the capacity of the pumps are as low as five-cusec water.

He said once they are able to install high capacity pumps, each of which could pump out around 40-cusec water, the stagnant water will receded, bringing relief to the area's people.

The Tk 45.6 crore proposed project is currently at the planning ministry for approval, he added.

However, the sangram committee rejected the water pump project, terming it impractical.

Protesting it, along with putting forward five more demands, the committee held a sit-in at Jashore deputy commissioner's office for five days till Thursday.

Iqbal Kabir Zahid, adviser of the committee, said tougher movements will be waged if their six-point demand is not met. The demands include tidal river management before the full moon, cancellation of the proposed water pumping project, Amdanga canal excavation and more.