Irrigation project atop Naikkhongchhari hills

Part of the Ghilatoli dam in Naikkhongchhari that harnesses stream water for irrigation. The dam has created a 70-acre reservoir in the area. PHOTO: STAR

This was beyond their imagination one year ago, when they could hardly raise one crop due to water crisis.

Once barren lands are now green with transplanted Amon seedlings.

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"After the Amon paddy, we will grow vegetables. The lands will be utilised round the year", said local indigenous leader U Faw Cha Marma while talking to this correspondent.

This will change the condition of poor hill people in the hills, a chronic food deficit area.

BADC set up the pilot project on Ghilatoli stream in Bandarban Sadar upazila at a cost of Tk 10 lakh and handed over its management to local people.

The dam water irrigates about 200 acres of land now. All the lands are not on the same level. But lands perched on picturesque hill slopes can be irrigated when water stored in a 70-acre valley is released and channeled through well-planned drains. There is scope to expand the command area of the project.

"Now local people manage the dam independently," U Faw Cha added.

They have formed a co-operative society, which also maintains the drainage system. None is paid and there is no cost for electricity. So the farmers are getting irrigation water free of cost, he said.

Abdur Rashid, a beneficiary of this project, said, "Earlier we used to produce only Aush paddy and got hardly 20 maunds a year from one bigha of land. This met only three months' requirement. This year I transplanted Amin paddy, and after harvesting this, I will grow vegetables.

"Now I am not worried about irrigation water. The Ghilatoli dam is there," he said.

BADC Sub-Assistant Engineer in Naikkhongchhari Bazlur Rahman said Ghilatoli irrigation dam is a success story after several trials in the hill. More such projects to harness streams will be taken up in Naikkhongchhari, he said. Such projects can be set up in the whole Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region and food production can be easily tripled, he said.

The local people can also go for fishery in the Gilatoli reservoir, which will earn them a huge amount, Rahman said.