FROM PAGE 3

“In a year with less rainfall, we might manage a small harvest, but one year we grow paddy, and for the next few years, we cannot,” she said.

Feeding livestock has also become difficult. “Where will I find straw or grass? The entire beel remains under waist-deep water,” she added, urging authorities to ensure drainage through Tidal River Management (TRM).

Spanning parts of Abhaynagar, Monirampur, and Keshabpur upazilas in Jashore, and Dumuria and Phultala in Khulna, the low-lying Bhabadah basin consists of at least 52 interconnected beels linked to rivers such as the Mukteshwari, Teka, Sri, and Hari.

Heavy siltation over the years has reduced these rivers’ drainage capacity, causing rainwater to remain trapped for months.

Last July and August, excessive rainfall inundated more than 150 villages, affecting over 2,00,000 people and submerging homes, roads, educational institutions, and fish enclosures. Although a pilot channel excavation project by the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) has eased water levels in some residential areas, most agricultural land remains underwater.

Agriculture experts say Boro cultivation typically runs from December to April, with seedbeds prepared between mid-December and early January and transplantation completed by late February.

In Bhabadah, those timelines have become largely irrelevant.

DAE data show the region has around 50,000 farmers and 35,531 hectares of cultivable land. This year, Boro was cultivated on only about 17,650 hectares, leaving more than 17,800 hectares fallow due to waterlogging.

In Keshabpur alone, over 2,300 hectares out of 5,400 hectares remained uncultivated.

Local farmer leaders say the prolonged crisis has pushed thousands into economic hardship.

“Year after year, thousands of hectares remain submerged. Farmers could not cultivate Aman, and now they have missed Boro as well. How can they survive like this?” said Iqbal Kabir Zahid, chief adviser of the Bhabadah Water Drainage Committee.

He stressed the urgency of implementing TRM -- a method that allows controlled flooding to restore river flow and reduce siltation.

“This is the right time to implement TRM. The rivers that were recently dredged are already silting up again. If action is delayed, restoring these river systems will take decades,” he added.

During visits to several beels -- including Kedaria, Kapalia, Dumur, Jhikra, Gandhimari, and Payra -- in the last week of March, this correspondent saw vast stretches of water dotted with water hyacinths and aquatic plants, with only limited Boro cultivation.

In a few places, farmers attempted small-scale irrigation by enclosing parts of the beels, but such efforts remained limited.

Samoren Biswas, additional deputy director (crops) of the DAE in Jashore, said, “First and foremost, water must be drained. Without solving the drainage problem, agriculture cannot recover here.”

“If water could be removed in time, much more land could have been cultivated,” he added.

BWDB officials say river re-excavation is underway as part of a long-term solution.

Polash Kumar Banerjee, executive engineer of BWDB in Jashore, told The Daily Star that the army is re-excavating 81.5 km of river at a cost of Tk 140 crore. Around Tk 45 crore will be spent on installing pumps to improve drainage, while another Tk 20 crore has been allocated for re-excavating several canals.

He said the waterlogging situation in the Bhabadah area is expected to improve significantly once the works are completed.