Save rivers in Kobadak basin

A Tidal River Management (TRM) approach should be made for that, they said at the dialogue on 'River Management in South-Western Zone and water Logging', held at the office Uttaran, an NGO, in Tala upazila.

It was addressed by, among others, Netherlands embassy representative Peter Jhon Son, Asian Development Bank (ADB) official Eyoko Hama, Scoti Mazzi of OXFAM, an international NGO, Touhid Ibne Farid of Action Aid, Arifur Rahman of Manusher Jonno, an NGO, engineer Khalequzzaman and Uttaran director Shahidul Islam.

They said Water Development Board (WDB) implemented a Tk 28 crore project last year to dredge the Kobadak to restore its normal flow. But it failed to increase navigability as it was implemented in an unplanned way.

They said the Kobadak should be linked with Bhairab river. decrease in the flow of Kobadak has hastened the death of other rivers in he area including Hari, Shree, Bhadra and Shailmari, creating water-logging in vast areas.

Water logging in at least 109 beels (water bodies) in Kalaroa, Tala, and Sadar upazilas in Satkhira; Jhhikargachha, Abhoynagar, Manirampur and Keshabpur upazilas in Jessore and Paikgachha and Dumuria upazilas in Khulna in the Kobadak basin has made life of millions of people miserable, also affecting agriculture, they said. This can be removed by implementing a comprehensive plan, they aid.

They said, encroachments by land grabbers, leasing out lands of these rivers for shrimp cultivation and building bridges and dams in an unplanned way are hastening the death of these rivers.

They said, a political commitment is needed to save the rivers and the ecology in the areas.