SANDWIP, Nov 10 : Nurul Alam is fighting a losing battle against the Meghna. His homestead in the island town of Sandwip is about to disappear into the turbulent river. This is the third time the 60-year-old businessman is looking for a new land to build a new home after the previous ones devoured into the river along with a brick house and fruit trees.
"We have already started moving our household things elsewhere." said Jewel Rana, one Alam's seven children.
"Workers will soon start dismantling our house." said Rana pointing to the house, where he spent most of his 18 years. The threatened home took the young man down the memory lane.
This is where I lost two of my nieces during the 1991 cyclone." said Rana in a broken voice.
Like Rana, most other families living at his Harishpur village are busy in shifting their houses to safer places as the river becomes destructive.
Continuous erosion by the river has been changing the map of the island, that emerged from the Bay of Bengal about 3,000 years ago. Although there is no official statistics, local people observed that about one fourth of the island has already been devoured by the Meghna during the last few decades.
Before being victims of erosion. almost all of them were farmers. Now most of them
have switched over to fishing and fighting a grim battle for survival.
Unabated erosion is also threatening Hatiya and Manpura islands in the confluence of the mighty river and the Bay of Bengal.
The erosion is causing untold sufferings to the islanders, who are either fishen,.cu or farmers. Dwelling houses and farmlands apart, several government offices at Sandwip. Hatiya and Manpura. disappeared into the river.
About 75 per cent of the islanders do not have any land for homesteads and most of them are landless.
Not only are they subjected to vagaries oT nature. They suffer in the hands of Jotdars or owners of big land. Using hired armed musclemen these landlords forced newly settled landless families to surrender part of their harvests. They also condemn them to a harsh regime of share-cropping in violation of laws.
Relations between Jotdars and these people are not warm. Rivalries from Jotdars for controlling new shoals often result in violent clashes. As a result, huge areas of khas land identified by the administration could not be distributed.
Almost isolated from civilisation. people living in the far flung off-shore islands live their lives almost in mediaeval conditions. They do not have a
police station, not to speak of civic amenities like schools, healthcare, post offices and phones.
Development works are a far cry in the islands. There is only one embankment in Nijhum Dwip and none in Urir Char to protect the land from salinity. Almost a similar situation exists in most of the islands of Char Kukri Mukri. Char Patila. Dhala Char. Char Nizam. Char Motahar. Char Zahiruddin and Nijhum Dwip.
A recent visit of some Journalists to some of the offshore islands like Sandwip. Hatiya, Nijhum Dwip and Manpura revealed how vulnerable the people are in these unprotected offshore Islands.
The study was conducted to assess the impact of cyclone on the coastal belt and the measures taken to save life and property in the region.
Poor transportation in most of the off-shore islands has been causing great hardship to the people. Lack of good transports block growth of trade and commerce.
There is hardly any paved roads in the islands and the number of kutcha roads are also very inadequate. In most places, there Is no connecting roads between cyclone shelters and human habitations and the existing ones are also very poorly constructed.
Boats and trawelers ferry people from one place to an-
other. When the river is rough they can not travel to the mainland. There is no communication system between the shoal areas and the thana sadar.
Economic life of the people is being crippled greatly due to continuous erosion as well as lack of infrastructural facilities including the transportation system. The mainstay of transportation between the island and the mainland is the sea truck.
A small sea truck operates once a day between Hatiya and Char Jobbar. But very often it gets out of order and stuck up in the middle of its way mainly during the low ebb stranding pasengers.
To make the communications easy, residents want the government to construct a road through Bayar Char that emerged between Char Jobbar and Hitiya. Considering the importance, the local government approved the project recommending development of a 20-km road which they said would reduced the distance at least by 50 per cent.
"The fate of the island will never change unless the communications system is improved," said a focal businessman, who runs his shop at Hatiya Steamer Ghat. The erosion has shattered the dream of the island" he said adding "1 am also making preparation to move my shot at a new site."
Not only the shopkeeper, almost all other inhabitants
near the ghat have started removing their business and goods to escape erosion.
About 20.000 families have already been left homeless by the erosion. They demanded immediate rehabilitation in government khas land and new islands emerging in the sea.
There are some 44.000 acres of khas land in the district where these victims could be rehabilitated. Huge land is rising from the sea" said a fisherman urging government to rehabilitate the erosion victims in the new lands which he said could bring a great relief to the people.
The islanders are allegedly harassed by forest officials as the allotment of land is a complicated business. *
"For cultivation, we have to pay the forest people some Tk 300 for each acre of land and a handsome amount for housing." said an inhabitant of the island against whom a number of cases were filed by the Department of Forest.
The islanders depend much on sea fish. Hundreds of tons of fish are caught, rotting is common for lack of cold storage.
Fishermen take loan from wealthy people to buy fishing nets, boats and foodstuff. As a result they have to sell their fish to the money lenders who demand interest ranging up to 200 per cent
— Courtesy: News Network