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Southwest Khulna waterlogged

Global climate change, unplanned river management main reasons

Shamim Ashraf
Situated in an area highly vulnerable to the ravages of global climate change, the southwestern part of Bangladesh has fallen victim since 2000 to the ill effects of waterlogging, forcing local inhabitants to migrate and adopt new ways oflife.
People of the region, having already suffered through a long litany of natural disasters - long tropica] cyclones, river erosion, salinity intrusion, as well as tidal and storm surges due to low sea level elevation - are now suffering from a new threat, since their river-beds arc filling with silt, which has resulted in the flooding of their homesteads and croplands.
As a result, 'regular crop and fishery cultivation has ceased, compelling farmers to pursue alternative crops and methods of cultivation to adapt to water-logging, which now appears to be a permanent problcmin the region.
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About 2.91 lakh acres of cultivable land of Bagerhat, Khulna, Satkhira and Jessore are already waterlogged, with more areas becoming waterlogged every year due to the rise in sea level, the filling of riverbeds, unplanned embankments, lack of river management and unplanned shrimp cultivation.
The effects have been far-reaching and destructive. In the last 10 years, Aman-Boro-Aush paddy was unable to be cultivated in approximately 17,000 hectares of land in the Gopalganj, Barisal and Pirojpur districts because of the construction of an embankment at Satla-Bagdha. Making matters worse, 1.25 lakh acres of land in 114 beels and water bodies in Gopalganj have fallen into a permanent state of water-logging.
Ironically, the Coastal Embankment Project of the 1960s, which was designed to protect low-lying coastal areas from inundation, has been the greatest factor in causing water-logging, since polders (dikes) were built along the coastline, with sluice gates controlling river flows, without consideration for local geo-physical characteristics.
Before the polders were built, tides used to flow inland, depositing sediments at high tide, creating a balance with the ongoing land subsidence. But after its construction, the silt was deposited on the riverbeds, resulting in the silting up of the rivers, while subsidence of the land within the polders continued. Eventually, the exit point of the sluice gates became blocked, permanently water-logging the empoldered areas. The tide then became weak as silt weakened its current.
At the same time, currents in the upstream rivers - mainly the Padma (Ganga in India) and its tributaries Bhairab, Mathabhanga and Garai-Modhumati - grew weak after India built the Farakka Embankment on the Ganga and started withdrawing water. Later, the current of the Padma eventually started moving towards the northeast.
"Had there been currents in the rivers, they would have washed the silt to the sea with the ebb, ensuring navigability of the rivers and taking the stagnant seawater or floodwaters to the sea," said Sheikh Selim Akhter Shwapan, a member of the Paani Committee (Water
Committee), which is leading locals in the demand for solving the region's water crisis.
As the riverbeds have filled, the tidal water has flooded adjacent areas, where it cannot recede once it collects in the locality and low-lying croplands.
Experts anticipate the problem will further deteriorate if India, implementing its river-linking project, builds an embankment on the Brahmaputra (Jamuna in Bangladesh) and its sources, the Manash and the Sangkosh, to withdraw water.
One locally-conceived solution to the water-logging crisis is the implementation of Tidal River Management (TRM). In 1990, waterlogged villagers of the Khulna region undertook TRM, breaching four polders to allow water in and out of an empoldered area. The outward water flow from tide-inundated polders created a strong current in the rivers concerned, and within a few weeks, the depth, width and navigability of the rivers also increased.
But the Water Development Board (WDB), in a bid to prevent others from interfering in the management of the water bodies, closed three breaches. As the other breach was maintained properly, silt deposited by the tides raised the level of 1,000 hectares of land sufficiently to grow rice in the monsoon.
The WDB, however, now finds that TRM, if implemented in a cyclic, planned manner, can solve the waterlogging problem, reducing river siltation and raising land levels in the coastal region.
Many, meanwhile, have initiated shrimp cultivation in dried up or drying rivers, canals, other water bodies and even croplands at tidal areas. They are taking in saline water to their enclosures and erecting long walls to enclose it, affecting the natural flow of water and ultimately contributing to waterlogging.
Many owners of these vast waterlogged croplands and fishing water bodies, as well as day labourers have migrated to other districts in search of new livelihoods. Many have switched to alternative crop cultivation and methods advocated by NGOs working with Care Bangladesh as an adaptation measure to waterlogging.