Special Correspondent :
The government has undertaken Tk 1,077.58 crore project for protecting Shariatpur district from erosion by the river of Padma.
Officials said, Khulna Shipyard will implement the project under direct supervision of the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB).
The project titled, “Protection of right bank of Padma at Naria and Zazira upazials in Shariatpur district,” got approval of the Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase (CCGP) in a meeting on Wednesday, with Finance Minister AMA Muhith in chair.
Both the upazilas of the district had been affected badly by Padma’s erosion in the last few weeks and about 5000 families have become homeless.
Scores of houses, shops, roads, a upazila heath complex and a mosque disappeared from Bashbari, Kedarpur and Mulfatganj areas in Naria upazila due to continuous river erosion.
“The project will protect about 8.9 km riverbank, execute 9.75km river dredging, construction of 0.089km end termination and eight Reinforced Concrete Cement (RCC) Ghats.
The government will implement the project under direct procurement basis,” Additional Secretary Nasima Begum told reporters after the meeting. “As per the government decision, the project would be implemented by Khulna Shipyard under BWDB’s supervision,” Director General of BWDB Engineer Md Mahfuzur Rahman told The New Nation yesterday.
He said the BWDB is currently dumping sandbags along the river bank as emergency measure to prevent erosion. “But once the proposed project is fully implemented, it will help protect the river banks permanently.”
River erosion has become a formidable problem in Bangladesh in recent years. Over the past few years, erosion by the major rivers has displaced thousands of people.
The country lost over 1,800 sq km land due to erosion by the Brahmaputra, the Jamuna and the Padma in the last three decades. Accumulation of silts in the riverbed due to absence of dredging is the main cause of erosion and floods.
“The government has taken up mega projects of re-excavation of rivers, rehabilitation of embankments and river bank protection throughout the country,” a senior official of Water Resource Ministry told The New Nation.
He said completion of the projects would help reduce and combat river erosion effectively.
