The victims of persistent waterlogging in the country's southwestern region along with the experts and donor agency representatives yesterday stressed the need for pragmatic measures to resolve the perennial problem permanently.

Over 10 lakh people on around two lakh hectares of land have been facing untold sufferings due to the disaster that resulted in the 60s following construction of sluice gates in the region, discussants told a roundtable organised jointly by the daily Samakal and Uttaran, a Satkhira based NGO, at the Jatiya Press Club.

The speakers said that following the construction, sedimentation took place only in river channels that ultimately raised the riverbeds comparing to the adjacent 'beel' (wetlands). On the other hand, the wetlands subsided due to

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non-deposition of sediment and in the course of time, a vast area of the region became permanently waterlogged.

Dr Ainun Nishat, country director of International Union of Nature Conservation (IUCN), said that free flow of the rivers needed to be ensured and the silt carried by the river waters should be allowed to be deposited in the low-lying wetlands through tidal river basin management.

He also emphasised the need for 'social engineering' -- solving the problem through utilising the society and its expertise. Purely technical approach to this problem, that was followed by the Water Development Board (WDB) so far, will not bring any solution, he added.

There is no need of bringing in foreign experts to solve the problem, the IUCN country director further observed.

Hua Du, country director of Asian Development Bank (ADB) termed the issue as an important and urgent one and assured all out assistance in this regard. "Let us stay with you and help financially or whatever other means needed to resolve the problem," Du said.

When the representatives from the affected people criticised the ADB financed projects implemented by the WDB without taking local expertise into consideration, she assured them of highlighting local knowledge and involving people from the region in this regard in future.

Several local chairmen and members of Pani (Water) Committee, representing the affected locals, narrated their sufferings and said that if proper actions are not taken immediately, there would be no existence of the waterlogging victims. "The situation is such that we no longer care about getting crops or our shelters, we are worried for our lives," local chairman Advocate Kamruzzaman said.

Almost all the local representatives alleged that the problem has been kept alive by the WDB officials for grabbing crores of taka from the project funds.

Director of Uttaran Dr Firoz Ahmed, country director of Oxfam Shahidul Islam, president of local water committee Shafi Ahmed, WDB representatives Ali Hashem and Nurul Ala also spoke in the roundtable moderated by Samakal Editor Abed Khan.