Our rivers are being choked by encroachment and pollution. Different projects, including dredging, are taken to protect the rivers but to no avail. The encroachers are too desperate to be stopped. So, the rivers are grabbed a few years after their restoration.
The condition of Buri Teesta river in Ulipur of Kurigram is a glaring example of the above mentioned scenario. The river was dredged under the Delta Plan activities. But a group of people reoccupied the river four years after the dredging was carried out, putting it at stake.
According to a Prothom Alo report, the Water Development Board took the initiative of dredging the river in 2018 at the cost of Tk 170 million. But within a span of five years, 12.5 kilometres -- stretching from Gunaigach Kheyagat bridge to Badrapara and Narikelbari -- have been encroached.
A quarter has built fish enclosures and buildings on both banks of the occupied river, disrupting the normal water flow.
The river occupiers claimed they had ancestral land in the river. The Water Development Board acquired their lands and carried out dredging there, overlooking CS Map. Therefore, they dug ponds in the banks to cultivate fish and built houses to live in. Several lawsuits over the ownership of the land in the river are underway.
Locals said if the encroachment continues, the upazila sadar will be inundated during the monsoon and the crops nearby will be damaged. At a stage, Buri Teesta river will be turned into a dying canal.
From the statement of the executive engineer of the Water Development Board of Kurigram office, Abdullah Al Mamun, we came to know that steps were taken to acquire the private land in the river. But the ministry didn’t allocate any budget for purchasing these lands.
Now, the burning question is: why the river was dredged without settling the complexities regarding its lands. Now, will the local administration and the Water Development Board be able to evict the encroachers? How a river is occupied before the court makes any decision over the ownership of land in the rivers?
We want the authorities concerned to take effective measures to free Buri Teesta from the grabbers.