Staff Reporter :
Water Resources Minister Anisul Islam Mahmud has said that no water experts gave genuine information on the recent disaster in the country’s northeastern haor belt.
The Minister also blamed the media for not providing accurate information in this regard.
He was speaking at an event presenting the findings of a research study on river erosion forecast, at the CIRDAP auditorium in the city on Wednesday.
“Actually, the experts did not tell the truth about the disaster. Besides, the media did not give accurate information over the issue. Instead, they only reported corruption of the Water Development Board (WDB) in the construction of dams,” the Minister said.
Expressing dissatisfaction, he said, “I have watched the talk shows in the televisions where most water experts said hundreds of crores of taka had been looted in embankment construction in the haors whereas only Tk 20 crore was allocated for repairing the embankments.”
He blamed heavy rainfall for the haor disaster. “The second heaviest rainfall recorded in India’s Cherrapunji area this year. The height of haor dams are six and a half meters but water flowed above seven meters. So the excessive rain is the main culprit behind crop damage and calamity,” Anisul Islam Mahmud further said.
Interestingly, top officials at the WDB and the Ministry of Water Resources on May 4 admitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission that there were massive corruption and irregularities in constructing and maintaining dams in the country’s haor belt.
Being summoned by the ACC, four officials, including Director General of WDB Jahangir Kabir, Additional Director General Abdul Hai, Superintendent Engineer Harun-ar Rashid and Joint Secretary of Water Resources Ministry Khalilur Rahman went to the ACC headquarters at Segun Bagicha.
A high-profile team of ACC led by its Director General Md Munir Chowdhury quizzed the four officials for over three hours in connection with massive financial corruption, negligence and delay in constructing dams.
The officials during the interrogation also confessed their incapability in completing the embankment projects in the haor areas, particularly in Sunamganj district, in due time.
The ACC DG said, “During the interrogation, the officials, including WDB DG Jahangir Kabir, confessed to their irregularities and negligence in constructing dams, which caused unprecedented flash flood damaging crops on several lakh hectares of land.”
“The enlisted contractors were also involved in the large-scale financial corruption. The accused persons would have to face punishments for their misdeeds as per the country’s existing law,” Munir Chowdhury further said.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina while visiting Sunamganj on April 30 warned of stern action against the persons involved in any corruption and irregularities in constructing dams in the haors.
This year, ‘boro’ corps in the vast wetlands of Kishoreganj, Sylhet, Sunamganj, Habiganj, Moulvibazar and Netrokona went under deep water following the collapse of embankments making the farmers totally helpless.
