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The Vicious Erosion Cycle
Reports of erosion caused by rivers are as numerous as local droughts and flash floods It is the old problem of Bangladesh being constantly stabbed by that double-edged scimitar of excess of water on one hand and too little of it on the other. Latest reports say 20 thousand people in seven thanas of Pabna' district have lost their homes to erosion by both the Padma and the Ja muna. That doesn't seem so significant in a land where lakhs are swept away by an elemental fell swoop or when compared to. as in the present caae. the other losses tn Pabna such as the de vouring by the rivers of 1 1 government offices. 5000 handloom factories. 12 mosques, five pn mary schools, three madrashas and one college' A flood of the size of one that enveloped all of Bangladesh in 1988 or a cyclonic sweep like the April 29 doomsmonday in '91 has a harrowing spectacularity. But the unrelenting river erosion that goes on and on all around Bangladesh has a far more destructive influence on the physical parameters of the land than those world newsmakers. Erosion of soil which goes Into silting of rivers causing floods contributes the most to a kind of inexorable meteorological, hydrological and environmental crunch drawing into its vortex the whole liveability of our dear motherland. It is just not a question of losing some houses and homes that erosion represents.
Erosion is a natural process that goes on and on and as such falls outside the pale of valued judgments like good or bad. But excessive erosion leading to cutting down on the liveability of a thriving millennia-old hub of culture and civilisation. is something that has to be set right — plainly in order to irve.
Society's incomprehension of the human actions — or the lack of it — that leads to the drought-flood-erosion-desertlfication vicious cycle has itself been somewhat eroded in the recent years — thanks to the environment movements. Unfortunately enough the same cannot be said of the government and other collective agencies of power with as much certainty. Both wind and river erosion can very effectively be fought with appropriate afforestation. — the biggest factor contributing to erosion of land is denudation wrought by man. This is the situation when only curbing defoliation wouldn't be enough. — lakhs of hectares of land, specially along the erosion-prone rivers, must be af-Icrested with effective trees.
Another very big factor, but far more controllable. has been the construction activities of the nation. Building of roads and setting up of townships and bazars and construction of bridges have hardly ever been done in a water-frienaly manner. The process goes on. The nation is one in wanting a bridge connecting the two parts — north and east, we too are all for it although we are not too sure it would be water-friendly or that it would not impel the Jamuna to throw up more and more of tne sand dunes it has been notoriously doing ever since it took its present course some two hundred years back or that the bridge, when finished, would not end at a. point from where another river — the Dakatia— would expand up to the horizon. Our building activities — all conceivable kinds of them — must be made to be hydrologically correct.
The erosion question is in fact another name for the question of geographical existence of Bangladesh. Long before the erosion-drought-flood-aesertification cycle would catch Bangladesh in a vice-like grip, the society here will have started on the way of an all-round putrefaction. This grim scenario can of course be reversed by moving the society to address the questldn of erosion and all that it leads to in a foolproof fruitful way.
Meanwhile. Chandpur is continually being eaten up and there is no way to save Sirajganj — at least in the conventional way. And the Surma has started seriously eroding Mollargaon in Sylhet Sadar thana. It is time government as well as scientists and socially committed people took up in earnest the question of erosion which is a long-drawn-out expression of punchy things like floods and droughts and yet is a picture in summary of the long unending tale of land abuse. How can we save our rivers and our lands ? How can we replenish the powers of our lands — towards which nothing has as yet been done ?