A LEADING English daily has reported that the cross-rubber dam built at Bhujpur in Chittagong on the Halda River to facilitate irrigation to agricultural land is causing seawater entry to the river sharply increasing the salinity and impacting the breeding environment for fishes. It is worth mentioning that Halda is the country’s lone natural spawning ground for freshwater carps. Reports said production of fish eggs in the river dropped by 60 percent last year to 624 kg from 1,559 kg in 2012 mainly due to the rise in salinity and experts fear the drop may further continue this year, hitting a fatal blow to the entire fisheries sector.
The Local Government and Engineering Department (LGED) constructed the 4.5 metre-high dam in 2012 at a cost of around Tk 10 crore without conducting any environmental impact study. As the dam is recalling water up to 16 feet deep in the reservoir, flow of freshwater from upstream of Halda has decreased. According to official statistics, salinity level in the Halda water went up significantly last year and this in turn is threatening the livelihood of several thousand fishermen and egg collectors in the area. Moreover, around a five-kilometre stretch of the river next to the dam is falling dry now for around three months from January due to the fall in the flow of sweet water from the upstream.
But the mindless act does not stop here. Reports said the LGED is now building a similar dam downstream of the Bhujpur dam on the mouth of Harualjuri feeder canal. The dam which is scheduled to be inaugurated on May 6 will reduce water flow further to worsen the situation. “Halda Bachao Andolon” – a local environmentalist organization has demanded that the government refrain from building new dams on tributaries of the river and canals linked to it. Local people fear that new dams will only endanger their livelihood.
It is already enough to make things worse. The biggest threat is that we are about to lose our only freshwater carp breeding reservoir due to the building of such mindless projects. Compared to any properly evaluated environmental projects, this dam is a recipe for disaster. We are of the view the government must stop building new dams in the area while the existing dam must be demolished to keep the fisheries breeding ground unaffected. We must do everything to save the Halda River from dying and its fisheries reservoir from being destroyed.
