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Alarming Erosion at Mawa

Padma bridge site at stake

Project officials fear bridge's guide bund might have to be extended; ferry terminal also threatened

Pinaki Roy
Continued erosion by the Padma river near the Mawa old ferry terminal is threatening the Padma bridge site and also the Mawa-Keorakanda new ferry terminal.
If the erosion, now taking place along South Medini Mandal village, goes on, the design of the bridge would have to be partially altered. This will mean changing the location of several pillars and extending the guide bund beyond the area acquired for the bridge, officials and experts have said.
All this will increase the bridge's construction cost, said Sharful Islam Sarkar, executive engineer of the Padma bridge project.
At the moment, the erosion is taking place less than one kilometer from the site of the main bridge, but it is moving towards the site.
In case the erosion continues next year, the bridge authorities would have no other options but to bring some changes in the bridge's design, said Maminul Haque Sarkar, deputy executive director of the Centre for Information and Geographical Information System.
Explaining the erosion, Maminul, a top morpho-hydrologist in the country, says it is not a change of course of
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the Padma. As the river is meandering at this point, the erosion is happening at its left bank near Mawa and also on the right bank on the up.
The erosion is not alarming yet but it might take a serious turn as the river is around 50 metres deep at the point, he noted.
Historically, erosion of the Padma takes place at this point of Mawa every 25 to 30 years and it continues for four to five years before it stops.
But this year's erosion is puzzling the engineers of Bangladesh Bridge Authorities who did not foresee this.
"The river was stable and there was no sign of erosion when the design was made. Now it seems we need to increase the length of the guide bund for the Padma bridge," Sharful Islam told The Daily Star over the phone yesterday while he was visiting the eroded area.
Guide bunds are meant to protect the river banks from erosion. Under the
original design of the bridge, its guide bund was to be 1.3km long.
More river areas would have to be trained as well because of the erosion. In this, the bridge authorities will need help from the Bangladesh Water Development Board.
"We cannot go beyond the acquired area. But maybe we will give fund to the Water Development Board for the extended river training," he said.
The bridge authority has acquired 1,100 hectares of land, relocating around 13,000 homes and over 70,000 people.
Three terminals of the Mawa-Keorakanda ferry service were relocated 500 meters downstream last year after the erosion started.
The erosion is moving downstream now, said Hazi Mustam Uddin, a trader at Mawa bazar.
Last year, a big banyan tree and a mosque near terminal-1 were swallowed by the river.
This year, more than 100 homes have so far
been relocated since the erosion returned last Saturday.
During a visit yesterday, Badsha Mia of South Medini Mandal village was
seen shifting his house from the river bank to Mawa Chourasta.
"I was born and raised here. I have never seen river erosion in my life
before this year and last year," said the 30-year-old.
The much-talked about Padma bridge will connect the south-western region of the country with the
capital. The 6.15km long bridge is to cost about $2.3 billion and its construction may start this year. The money is to come for the government fund.
The project was to be originally funded by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, Jica and the Islamic Development Bank. But
the donors backtracked from funding the project on the ground that corruption had taken place in selecting the project's supervising consultant.