Containing river erosion for poverty reduction

Amount of loss
According to a survey an estimated 5 per cent of the floodplains disappear in the stream of rivers and one million people directly or indirectly become victims of which 300,000 homeless people take shelter on embankment, roads, khas lands and the remaining make their ways into towns and cities. Yearly financial loss due to river erosion is about Tk 3,500 crore in absolute terms, but in real terms if cumulative losses of crops, private and public properties are taken into account, the loss would amount to a greater sum , say Tk 4000 crore which is almost 7 per cent of revenue income in the national budget. This is a national loss that must be reduced and ultimately mitigated , otherwise steps towards poverty reduction may not be successful even in 50 years.

Silent but dreadful
River erosion renders the entire family homeless and penniless .Those who had all the means for food and livelihood become landless overnight. People living on the river banks get up one bad morning and see that half of their homestead has been gorged by the river, and they are compelled to abandon the remaining. Flood, cyclone, tornado appear with lot of noise and devastation that can be seen so that rescuers are made to come up with help , but river erosion takes its toll silently.

Prevention is urgent
It is indeed difficult to prevent erosion of the rivers that are so many. Water Development Board (PDB) has almost failed to control it most probably because of ineffective method. PDB has so far used concrete blocks placed on the banks to stop erosion . But according to an expert if the blocks are not of required size and strength it will be just waste compared to dreadful strength of the river current and waves that cut bank not along the surface but much below where no concrete block is placed. Most often we hear that blocks have washed away during rainy season. More durable and effective blocks or walls should be built or placed to stop the current and waves from striking deep in the banks. The method may require huge money, but it would be useful to spend at least Tk 2,000 crore in order to prevent a loss of Tk 4,000 crore every year affecting the lives of 1,000,000 people.

The objective of reduction of poverty cannot be achieved if germination of poverty is allowed through river erosion. It would , therefore ,be necessary to allocate enough money in the budget as ADP or specific projects. During the first few years allocation of more funds may be necessary but the need will gradually diminish ending in no fresh allocation except maintenance of the old ones. PDB has an accumulated bad name for alleged indulgence in corruption and graft in fabricating the concrete blocks through contractors. Hasty payment of bills before end of the financial year even by partial placing of the given number of blocks in the banks during rainy season seems to be a credible allegation. Because the blocks cannot be counted while under water. PDB's 'work' in raising soil embankments and eventual leakage of the same has aroused public anger and interception at many places due to which corruption has reduced to some extent in those places. So the local people will have to be vigilant and intercept acts of graft whenever detected.

Rehabilitation of the homeless
Though it is necessary to provide the million victims of river erosion food and makeshift shelters initially , they may not afford to live in the polythene tents for long .The victims have to be allocated a plot of land for raising homestead, soft loan for earning livelihood etc. There are hundreds of thousands of khas land plots part of which have been occupied illegally by the elements related to power that be or otherwise powerful. Those lands need to be recovered and allocated to the victims. The ministries of relief and rehabilitation and land have a great role to play in this regard. The government alone may not meet this big need of the victims , the NGO's and the richer class of the society may also come forward to mitigate this suffering. It is also important to see that the new lands that accrue on the riverbed by accumulation of the silts is protected by the government for the victims.

Conclusion
If the data given above are analysed and reviewed it would be realised how disastrous river erosion is. The process of river erosion is very quick while that of accumulation of silts and accretion of new land is very slow. Moreover these lands fall in the hands of the illegal occupants most of the times resulting in deprivation of the right of the real victims and the government as well. Consequently poverty of erosion victims is aggravated every year . So if the process is allowed to continue , poverty will never be reduced in the country. It is, therefore, imperative to control river erosion by application of effective modern technology, not by throwing cement blocks on the banks in a haphazard way. The engineers might opine that it would be costly. As a layman I would suggest that it is necessary to incur cost in order to have permanent solution instead of wasting money every year on fabrication and placing of cement blocks which are generally washed away. By applying effective modern technology, even if it is costly, at one stage it would be observed that river erosion has stopped totally.

Hence it is urgent to treat river erosion as a national calamity breeding poverty and steps should be taken to control it in order to reduce poverty. If river erosion is not controlled poverty will never be reduced.

Ali Idris FCA is a freelance contributor.