The area has never been known for fishing; rather, this part of Bangladesh produces one of the most important crops of the country – the Boro paddy.
Yet, a community of about 1,500 people at Barenda village in Nachole of Chapainawabganj has set a unique example of coexistence, cooperation and prosperity.
The secret to their success is a small pond of about 9.7 acres, which fetches them Tk10 lakh in revenue every year from the sale of fish.
On the surface, the Barenda is just like any other village. The rough muddy road leading into the village, the vast paddy fields and the usual peasantry hardly reveals that they are one of the most progressive peoples in Bangladesh.
Nobody knows when the pond came into being. Locals said it might have been dug many decades ago by a local landlord – a zamindar – for solving the drinking water crisis in the drought-prone region.
Until 1976, it was an abandoned ditch. That year, locals cleared the hyacinth and started using it on a small scale.
In 1993, the pond was re-excavated under the government’s Social Safety Net Programme. The villagers formed a 21-member committee, took the pond on lease and started using it for fishing.
The committee has since been overseeing the fishing business and ensuring fair share of the profit for every villager.
In 2013, with help from non-governmental organisation Bangladesh Resource Centre for Indigenous Knowledge, it became a formal cooperatives society called the Barenda Sarbik Gram Unnayan Samity Limited.
With the income generated from the pond, they have built a mosque, a temple, a graveyard and a cremation ground. The society pays Tk100 per month as drinking water bills for each family.
Recently, they have started arranging a weekly market in the area that sits every Wednesday, ensuring market access for the villagers. From their shared profit, they have also kept aside funds for festivals, weddings and emergencies such as illness.
The mosque and the temple may give the idea that the villagers comprise only Muslims and Hindus. But in reality, the community is much more ethnically diverse. There are also people from indigenous Munda and Oraon communities.
“As a senior citizen of the village, I can say with conviction that everybody has been living happily here because we make every decision together,” said 55-year-old Ataur Rahman, head teacher of the local government primary school.
“The togetherness is particularly helpful for the poor who did not have money or power. Now they have become exercising thinkers,” said indigenous Iswar Oraon, also a member of the 21-member managing committee.
“We are minorities, but we never feel insecure or frightened because we live together with everyone else,” Iswar said.
The government sees this as a sustainable solution to the crisis created by the drying Padma River and fast depleting underground water.
Because of the Farakka Barrage in India, Padma has been drying up. As a result, to cultivate the irrigation-intensive Boro, farmers have had to depend heavily on groundwater.
With looming risks that the entire area might turn barren in a few decades, the government has been trying to discourage Boro. In fact, the local government offices have been trying to encourage the inception of similar organic communities centring on the 500 existing small and medium-sized ponds in Nachole upazila.
“In addition to development, such initiatives can ensure effective management of surface water in the region,” said Mohammad Rashed Wasif, upazilla nirbahi officer (UNO) of Nachole.
Fazle Hossain Badshah, lawmaker and general secretary of the Workers Party of Bangladesh, said: “This part of the country has a rich history of fighting against injustice together. The famous Tevaga movement is an example.”
He also said: “If the local communities could be brought together again like the old times, the oppression on the minority communities can be curbed significantly.”
