The incident took place at Kolkonda union in Gangachara upazila of Rangpur. The people of Binbinachar village have started construction of this dam on their own initiative to prevent erosion. They had no choice. So he tied the team in the last attempt. Because the village of Shankardaha in the neighboring Laxmitari Union no longer exists. The Teesta has been eroded in stages. About two and a half thousand people there have now lost their homes and become refugees.
The village of Binbinachar in Kolkonda Union suffered the most damage though several other villages in Gangachara of Rangpur were eroded at different times last year. Now two-thirds of that village is in the river. People hoped that the Water Development Board (Paubo) would come forward to prevent this erosion. An effective system will be 'visible'. But nothing happened.
Paubo officials shared the same broken record with villagers and local government representatives. He said, not everything happens in a hurry. You have to be patient. Documents have been sent to Dhaka for approval to identify the areas at risk of erosion and take action. If the order comes after seeing the third party, Paubo will work in Kaunia and Pirgachha upazilas including Laxmitari and Kolkonda union affected by river erosion. Taking the opportunity, Paubo official also sang the song of Teesta master plan. He said patiently, if the Teesta master plan starts, there will be planned river governance in the region. Then there will be no danger of river erosion.
But the river does not work in the government! Instead, people on both sides of the river have to get up and sit down. So the villagers got up. Member of the 5th ward of the newly formed Kolkonda Union Parishad. Voluntary dam construction activities are going on under the leadership of Monwar Hossain. According to Monwar Hossain, the month of Falgun has come. After a few months the river will call for a ban, the rainy season will begin. Meanwhile, the river Teesta has come within two and a half hundred yards of the village. If no action is taken now, the rest of Binbinachar will disappear like Sankardaha village. Binbinachar Government Primary School will go first.
Residents of Binbinachar are constructing a 1,000-foot dam at the voluntary ashram to protect it from river erosion in the coming monsoon. Work has started on February 1. As planned, the work could be completed by the first week of March. The height of the dam will be 10 feet and the width will be 60 feet. In addition, about 40 feet of bamboo will be planted on both sides of the dam. Eucalyptus trees will be planted as well. The villagers are volunteering in this work. With their bamboo bushes and determination to take the work forward with money.
On the basis of which the villagers decided the height, width and slope of the dam without being proficient in engineering, in response to this question they shared their experienced knowledge. They have noticed that the river Teesta breaks up to a maximum of 25 feet in a year. As a result, if the dam is 60 feet wide, Binbinachar will be saved for the time being. Their idea is that if the dam is built properly, the village of Sankardaha, which was lost in the river, will become suitable for cultivation and settlement again.
However, the chairman of the adjoining Union Laxmitari thinks that the dam at Binbinachar will be operational only when the Water Development Board comes forward and builds a 6 km dam downstream from Binbinachar. And it has to be done before the coming monsoon. Otherwise, Binbinachar, West Ichli, East Ichli, Charishwarpur and Jayram Ojha villages will be affected like Sankardaha due to direct impact of water flow. Several villages including Mahishamuri in Kakina union of Kaliganj upazila of Lalmonirhat district will be threatened. More than two lakh people will be affected.
Is it right to ignore people's initiative?
Although the structure of the Water Development Board (Paubo), born out of the Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), has undergone many changes, there is still no 'visible' way of listening to the people and reaching out to the people. For the dam, the organizers asked the local water development board authorities for assistance of 10,000 GEO (GEO textile) bags. No response was found. Asked by reporters why Geo Bag did not provide assistance, the officer-in-charge told Saf that there was no chance of it.
There is probably no rule to get out of the warehouse if the storage of goods stored for human beings does not start to break down, hence this inability. In this country, it is as if the people are just tenants and the employees of the republic sitting in chairs wrapped in towels are all zamindars.
I have seen the same delay in standing by the people to protect the erosion even after the dams in Satkhira, Khulna and Bagerhat. Annoyed and frustrated people at one point prevented the MP's party from returning to the dock last year.
Can't give the goods, where is the barrier to go to the side to give wisdom and advice? The technique of building erosion resistant dams with bamboo, tarma, wood etc. is part of our popular knowledge. In engineering terms it is called Bundel Dam. The subject has been included in various engineering universities and colleges of the subcontinent in the academic course of water resources management. Those who teach do not seem to be able to create such an interest among the students. We don't understand that non-engineers can have engineering knowledge. But the boat made by them is crossing the river day and night.
And who can stand by
No more rivers. The way the river flows in different pains in different countries, the speed is not the same as before. As a result, in order to prevent the unfamiliar behavior of the known river, it is necessary to update the popular knowledge. The Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS) has been working very efficiently for a long time on the river flow and the possibility of erosion. So far, their accurate predictions about the breakdown have been lauded at home and abroad. The organization can stand by the enterprising people of Teestapar and tell them where the river can turn in the next two years. Only this information can make their initiative successful.
The river research institute in one corner of the country is doing a lot of work on the Bundel dam. In the fiscal year 2019-20, the River Research Institute was implementing a project of Bundel Dam in Phuluarchar area of Roumari Upazila with the funding of Climate Trust Fund. Under that pilot project, 'Bamboo Bundling' project was implemented across 1,600 meters on the left bank of Brahmaputra river. The cost is only 60 lakh rupees. At the expense of this money, a large area called Fuluarchar survived the erosion. Cultivation of various crops including nuts started again in those lands. The bumper yield of nuts there in 2020 was astounding.
Under the Climate Trust Fund, the river research institute constructed a bamboo dam in an area of one and a half kilometers in 2019 using the same folk technology to prevent erosion of Gorai river in Narua union of Baliakandi upazila of Rajbari. As a result of this dam river erosion is reduced and river navigability is also increasing. The project cost only 75 lakh rupees. The dam of one and a half thousand meters length was constructed on four parts of Gorai river.
Our universities and research institutes can stand by such initiatives at their own expense to increase their knowledge. Folklore has a scientific basis. It is affordable and effective. As Enayet Chowdhury and AKM Saiful Islam, professors at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) Institute of Water and Flood Management, have said in an article, These are also used to prevent river erosion by reducing the intensity of water flow. Using a bundle can provide some relief from direct water hit on the dam. The examples they give are the bundles made in Talku Sahabaj area of Balapara union of Kaunia upazila of Rangpur or Namapara village of Roumari upazila of Kurigram. The two professors also mentioned that various government and non-government organizations are now working on the use of bundles in Bangladesh.
Now the question is how the universities, river research institutes, CEGIS and Climate Trust Fund will know about these human initiatives. This question comes to our mind due to lack of communication with people. If the companies think a little bit about the way we communicate with those who pay our rent, then the answer will be found. If not, there will be a committee, there will be no work.
Poet Shakti Chatterjee's poem comes to mind:
People are crying loudly, you stand next to people,
People are trapping, you stand by like a bird,
Man is very lonely, you come and stand by his side.
You've been feeling like that since that morning,
I remember in the evening, I remember at night.
Man is very lonely, you come and stand beside him,
Come and stand, float and stand in love,
People are crying loudly, you become human and stand by. ”
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