Raised homesteads ease life

Raised homesteads have brought a new life to haor people in Chatir Char village in Niklee upazila in Kishoreganj. PHOTO: STAR

She, unlike in previous years, will stay back with her domestic animals and fowls. They are now safe from turbulent sheets of haor water as their homesteads have been raised above the flood level.

Fatema is among 90 poor families in Niklee upazila whose homesteads have been raised by a local NGO, POPI (People Oriented Programme Implementation), with assistance from Oxfam, an international NGO.

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They have also been provided with tubewells for safe water, sanitation facilities and micro credit for income generating activities like poultry, goat and cow rearing, fishing and small trade.

People of the area very poor. They do not have any work from June to October as fields go under 10 to 15 feet water.

During monsoon, they usually sell domestic animals and move to higher areas as most of the homesteads go under water. They return when the monsoon water subsides and rebuild their houses and erosion-affected homesteads.

Raising of homesteads by Oxfam has been of great help to them, they said.

Anwara, 50, of the village said every year she had to sell her cows and ducks and leave home for about six months.

"We had to spend Tk 500 to Tk 1000 on house rent during monsoon. Now we got our own raised home where we can live permanently", she added.

Abdul Hakim said, "Though we remained half-fed, we had to rent a house for the monsoon period. Now the permanent shelter provided by POPI gives us the scope to have a stable life and to be self-reliant".

Elderly Milon Begum said vegetables from the backyard, eggs from ducks and milk from cows meet their daily needs. All these have been possible as her homestead has been raised, she said.

Milon Begum said her family used to rent a thatched house of a fisherman in the nearby village during monsoon.

Manik Chowdhury, Chairman of Chatir Char Union Parishad, said the 90 poor families in the village had become virtually homeless as their homesteads was eroded by waves. They are now rehabilitated.

The lone government primary school in the village, damaged by subsequent monsoons, can not be rebuilt for lack of a raised space. This correspondent also saw a teacher taking classes at an open place under the sky.

Morshed Alam Sirkar, Executive Director of POPI, said people in haor areas are the worst victims of natural disasters. "They can be properly rehabilitated only if their homesteads are raised above the flood level".

We have also lunched a programme to protect the raised homesteads from waves by planting Koras trees. Koras is a fast growing bushy tree which survives in deep water for more than four months, he said.

We supply saplings and ask the people to plant those around their homesteads to protect those from erosion, he said.

POPI has also built a raised filed in the village which is used as a weekly market place and a play ground for children.

Farid Hasan Ahmed, Program Co-ordinator of Oxfam, said they will raise more 200 homesteads in the area in next dry season.