In the remote south of the country, the people of Khayerhat, Gongapur and Koralia villages of Bhola are no strangers to the unforgiving wrath of Tetulia River that continues to claim many of their homes every year.
In 2013, they found a glimmer of hope when they heard that a river protection embankment has been planned for the vulnerable riverbank to save a local union, a bazaar, and a 30-bed government hospital from erosion.
But like many other climate change adaptation projects, the Tk2.99 crore project remained stuck in bureaucratic tangles due to negligence, while the river continued to claim more and more homesteads.
On July 7, 2013, the trustee board of Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund (BCCTF) approved the construction of a 0.87km-long embankment on the banks of the Tetulia in Bhola’s Burhanuddin upazila. The Water Development Board (WDB) at Bhola was supposed to implement the project.
Although work on the embankment was scheduled to begin in July 2014 and end by June 2015, even the necessary tenders have not yet been floated.
During this time, Alam Talukder, a farmer in South Koralia, had to shift his house twice because of erosion and lost most of his possessions in the process.
“A year ago, our home was located at least 1km west of here [now under the river]. We shifted our house twice in the last year... But except for some materials of the house, all was lost to the continuous erosion.”
Talukder said he had once heard that an embankment would be made, but did not know any detail about the WDB project.
Another local farmer named Md Eusuf also echoed Talukder. “I had heard a year ago that an embankment will be made soon. Now I do not know whether the riverbank protection would be made or not,” he said.
Locals said if the embankment is built, around 10,000 people in the area would be directly benefited.
“The erosion will stop if the construction work was implemented,” said a villager named Bacchu Mia.
Locals said they have met with the local lawmaker and a minister regarding the embankment, but were sent back home with only political pledges.
Meanwhile, the official in charge of the project told the Dhaka Tribune that bureaucratic complications have caused the delay in the project.
“The project work has been delayed because of different processes. But we will soon invite tender in this regard,” said Md Abdul Hakim, executive engineer at Bhola 1 zone of WDB.
However, he expressed hopes that work on building the embankment would begin within two months.
