Environment and Forests Minister Anisul Islam Mahmud on Sunday said the government had taken an initiative to reconstruct the 139 polders in the low-lying coastal regions of country’s southern districts for increasing siltation in farmlands.
“The polders (large embankments) were built to cultivate lands by stopping flow of salt water, but
there has not been much siltation as the water could not enter the local lands”, he said.
The minister told the journalist at Spectra Convention Centre in Dhaka, arranged by Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF) that published a survey on climate change there.
The MJF conducted the survey in 12 disaster upazilas of eight districts how do the local people in coastal areas address the risks of climate change. Now the polders will be reconstructed, said Anisul Islam.
Poldering means building of large embankments around the perimeter of the islands formed between the criss-cross of rivers in the delta. Inside the polders, there are also dense, natural networks of canals, and some of the large internal canals are connected to the surrounding rivers by sluice gates installed in the polder embankment.
Thus a polder typically has three elements-the embankment surrounding it that keeps the water out from the surrounding rivers, the drainage canals inside the polders that remove the excess water at low tide and store fresh water at high tide for irrigation, and sluice gates that are opened to drain out water from the polder at low tide and to take in water at high tide for irrigation during times of water shortage or drought.
