About 0.28 m hectares of land on 52 haors will be saved: Flood control project to be revamped in Sylhet region

block
Sylhet Correspondent :
Spending several years without any progress, the ambitious project taken for early flood control and crop protection in 6 districts of Sylhet region is being revamped again.
About 0.28 million hectares of land on 52 haors would be saved and 330,000 tonnes of paddy would be produced on successful implementation of this.
Some major works would be done this year with an allocation of Tk 900 million, official sources informed on Monday while admitting lack of coordination between departments and lack of fund allocation had already slowed down the project implementation.
Approved at the ECNEC meeting on 12 April, 2011 for the country’s haor region districts of Sylhet regions, Tk 6849 million project got no sanction at the initial stage.
Since the term ended in June 2015, it has been extended for a year, but it should be further extended, the officials said.
Implementation of the project named ‘Pre-monsoon Flood Protection and Drainage Improvement in Haor areas’ had to be revised five times before it was launched in 2010-2011 session.
It was aimed at raising production capacity through works on six haors in Sylhet, 36 in Sunamganj, five in Netrokona and two in Moulvibazar, one in Habiganj and two in Kishoreganj districts. On implementation the project would save the huge croplands, which go inundated during monsoon almost every year, the officials added.
Project Director Obaidur Rahman, also additional chief engineer of Water Development Board (WDB), said main objective of the project is to ensure protection of Boro crops against pre-monsoon flash floods and to increase navigability of the main rivers in the region. It would also improve capacity of the internal drainage canals, the official added.
Tk 842 million was spent in the last four years with only 12 per cent progress as yet. However, we would do some major works this year, the official claimed.
The project components include, construction of 39 regulators, 32 kilometre compartmental dyke, cross dam at Matian Haor in Sunamganj, construction of 29 drainage outlets, 22 irrigation structures, 333 Km internal canal re-excavation and 40 Km Surma-Boulai river system dredging.
Tenders for the procurement of dredgers and others would be held by December, the official informed.
Almost every year, natural calamities like floods, rolling down of water from the Indian hilly region, incessant rains cause damage to Boro crops in vast areas in the said six districts.
The low-lying region, known as haor zone of the country is the major Boro producing area.
Due to absence of the appropriate and sustainable efforts to save the lone crop of the region, the poor and marginal farmers suffer extremely almost every year mainly due to seasonal flooding and others.
Every year, Boro paddy is cultivated on about 700,000 hectares in the districts.
block