Short-term fix, long-term trouble?

On one hand, it's good news that the government has taken up a river excavation project at Hari and Teka rivers to recede water from the waterlogged Bhabadah region.

On the other, locals are complaining of a brand new woe, as they say the contractor is dumping the sediment back into the river just a feet away from the excavation spot.

The projects are being implemented by Jashore Water Development Board (WDB), with the aim to enhance navigability of the rivers, along with receding stagnant water in Bhabadah region, which has inundated lakhs of people.

During a recent visit and another in mid-April last year, this correspondent found truth to the locals' astonishing allegations.

According to Bhabadah Pani Nishkashan Sangram Committee, a citizens' body demanding mitigation of the longstanding waterlogging issue, the Teka and Hari rivers have shrunk and become divided into three canals due to the dumping of excavated earth into them.

"WDB is clearly violating the foreshore law of 2013, by doing this," said Iqbal Kabir Zahid, an adviser of the committee.

Contacted, Executive Engineer of Jashore WDB Tauhidul Islam said they are implementing the 3.7 kilometres river excavation works along a 12-metre wide spot in Teka River, upstream from the Bhabadah sluice gate.

In Hari River, the department is implementing 5 kilometres of emergency excavation works at a three-metre wide spot, downstream from the gate, the engineer said.

The total cost of the project is Tk 3.18 crore, he added.

He offered an explanation for dumping the earth back into the river, saying this is because works for the Hari river works are being undertaken in an emergency basis to drain out the stagnant water.

However, he had no explanation for why the same was being done for the Teka river works, which is not an emergency project.

Ronojit Bauali, convener of the Sangram Committee, alleged that rather than solving the waterlogging problem, the Water Development Board only wants to prolong it so that they can pocket some money by capitalising on the never-ending crisis.

"Come rainy season, the deposited earth is going to clog the river again," he said.

Zahid cited another Jashore WDB project that aimed to reduce waterlogging in the region but allegedly ended up contributing to it.

He was speaking of Water Development Board's installation of 20 pumps at Bhabadah sluice gate which pump out water from the waterlogged areas.

But this only ends up depositing sediment and elevating the riverbed, clogging the drainage system of the area and inundating numerous villages, according to Zahid.

Due to the project, the river has become silted up to Khulna's Dumuria upazila, around 50 kilometres downstream from the Bhabadah sluice gate, he said.

Meanwhile, using the Bhabadah Pani Nishkashan Sangram Committee's preferred tidal river management (TRM) method for eight years till 2013, the river was made around 15 to 20 feet deeper, said Iqbal Kabir Zahid.

According to WDB sources, the level of the river was zero at sea level when the tidal river management project was run, while it is now silted and thus raised up to around 2.5 metres.

Zahid said WDB's apathy to TRM, a proven natural method to solve waterlogging, is contributing to killing the stream.

Supporting the elevated flow project, WDB Jashore Executive Engineer Tauhidul Islam said around a metre of silt has been washed away due to the flow of water created by the water pumps.

However, activists and locals have rejected his claim.