A Meghna river tributary has been passed off as a canal in a project proposal to build a flood control dam over it in Narsinghdi’s Raipura upazila.
The Water Development Board (WDB) prepared the proposal and sent it to Climate Change Trust to approve it. According to the project, the dam will be built over the tributary by filling it with soil from Bottoli to Kheyaghat point, which is known as Kuthir Gaang.
Locals, especially farmers feared that their cultivation would be heavily affected if this project was implemented.
They have long been calling for building a bridge over the tributary from its Kheyaghat to Bottoli point.
Late Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, who was LGRD and Cooperatives minister of the BNP-led 2001-2006 government, promised to build the bridge over the tributary.
Accordingly, a project was prepared and tenders were invited for it, but it got stuck during the military-backed caretaker government and it still has not seen the light of the day.
Former Posts and Telecommunication Minister, now an MP, tried to revive and implement the project in 2009, but he failed to do so for unknown reasons.
Officials from the Water Development Board visited the site recently and sent a proposal to the Climate Trust Fund, saying it requires to build a flood control dam over the “canal” to check climate change effects in the locality.
Kuthir Gaang, a Meghna tributary, has been shown as a canal in the project.
The project cost has been put up at around Tk25 crore to protect the assets of Tk more than 239 crore.
The outlay for erecting the flood control dam, closures and protecting its slope has been estimated at Tk around 23 crore.
Amirganj Union Parishad Chairman AKM Fazlul Karim Faruk said it is in no way acceptable to show the tributary as a canal in the project. “We, the locals, will resist implementing this project at any cost.” Water Development Board Executive Engineer Md Abul Hossain said he was not aware whether this was a canal or a tributary and so he had talked to Chararalia Union Parishad Chairman Nuruzzaman Sarker about it.
He blamed the chairman for passing off the tributary as a canal, adding: “The project has already been approved and we will soon receive the money for implementing the project.”
Chararalia Union Parishad Chairman Nuruzzaman Sarker said he just said this project would now be cancelled now since people were protesting against it. State Minister for Water Resources Md Nazrul Islam Hiru said: “I will look into this.”
