People's initiative to save village
People of a village in Hijla upazila have been working hard for the last three months to protect their village from erosion by the Meghna river after the government had failed to take any step to save their homesteads.
The people of Paul Para are dumping geo bags in the erosion-hit areas on their own initiative with Tk 14 lakh collected from a local bazaar committee.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Villagers said they had to come forward on their own as the Meghna had eroded several hundred households during the last one year.
During monsoon, erosion turns severe, causing much suffering to the villagers, said Jamal Uddin Dhali, convener of River Erosion Prevention Committee (REPC).
The river has already washed away Profulla Nath High School, Arshigor Government Primary School and around one-third of agriculture land, said Abul Kalam Bepari, a committee member, adding that they are united to save their village.
The villagers hired a local contractor to supply geo bags filled with sand at Tk 110 a bag, said Taslim Majhi, also a member of the committee. He said around 4,000 geo bags will be dumped in the erosion-hit area stretching 750 metres.
This correspondent on March 18 found a group of people was piling geo bags in the area to protect their village.
Dipok said the village is their ancestral home so they do not want to leave it, adding that they would continue fight to save their village.
“Hundreds of points in Hijla and Mehendiganj upazilas were badly affected by the river erosion. We have sent a project profile to save Ulania launch ghat, a secondary school and the property of Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury from the Meghna river at a cost of Tk 386 crore, but we did not submit any other project proposal due to fund constraint,” said district Water Development Board Executive Engineer Abu Sayed.
“We have no plan to submit a project proposal for Paul Para area. We gave only technical support to their initiative,” he added.
“I am trying to include Paul Para in the next project,” said local lawmaker Pankaj Devnath, adding that he had donated Tk 5 lakh to the committee.