Alip Ghatak
bdnews24.com Bagerhat correspondent
Bagerhat, June 05 (bdnews24.com)—Wastes flow freely into the Bhairab, heavily polluting the river because of a lack of proper waste management in the Bagerhat municipality, locals say.
"We have no other way other than dumping the remains of the animals into the river," says Babul Sheikh, a butcher at the Bagerhat municipal market.
"Though municipality has designated a place to sacrifice animals they didn't arrange for dumping the remains," he complains.
The five main drains of the town end up emptying wastes into it. Even the municipality is dumps waste onto the bank of the river.
If things go on like this the river will lose navigability and flora and fauna within the next few years, said environmental experts.
"Several chars (shoals) are emerging from different spots of the river due to the random dumping waste," said Mahfuzur Rahman Tulu, executive director of Foundation for Ecological and Environmental Development.
"Illegal structures are being erected on these chars and encroachment is going on by dumping waste into the town protection embankment area," he said.
The town protection embankment was raised in 2005 along the bank of the river at a cost of around Tk 7 crore to save coastal Bagerhat town from floods and tidal waves.
The level of pollution shot up after the construction of the dam, people say.
"In my childhood I have seen big boats plying in the Baliar canal, a branch of Bhairab. Now the canal is dead and the authorities have turned it into a drain," said Jahangir Ali Babu, a lawyer of Bagerhat.
Recently, the highland of Sadar Upazila was flooded by the tidal wave whipped up by cyclone Aila.
"It is an evidence of our going against nature," said Upazila Parishad chairman Khan Mujibar Rahman.
Municipality mayor Khan Habibur Rahman said the traders in the market were dumping waste into the river though they had been asked to keep those at a certain place.
In a discussion on mass literacy on June 1 it was said that most of the 41 rivers, 547 canals and 22 beels in Bagerhat have been encroached on after they lost navigability and the emergence of shoals—raised banks of sand or rocks under the surface of the water.
Abdur Razzak, executive engineer of Bagerhat Water Development Board, said many rivers under the Board give rise to shoals owing to the lack of normal tide and ebb. "We are unable to dredge the rivers due to lack of government fund."
The illegal embankments put up by the shrimp businessmen in the branch canals of Bhairab are being removed to restore the navigability of those canals, said Bagerhat Sadar Upazila vice chairman Sardar Nasir Uddin.
Such unauthorised embankments were removed at 20 canals, he said.
bdnews24.com/corr/dg/bd/1736h.
