'Save Kabodak basin from waterlogging'

17 September 2009, 17:00 PM

Our Correspondent, Satkhira

People in Tala and Kalaroa upazilas in Satkhira and Keshabpur and Manirampur upazilas in Jessore district put up barricade on Satkhira-Khulna highway and held a rally at Patkelghata yesterday demanding solution to the persisting waterlogging problem in the Kabodak basin. Supporting the programme organised by 'Kabodak Bachao Andolon Samannoy Committee' (coordination committee to save Kabodak River), hundreds of people from all walks of life joined a procession that paraded the main thoroughfares of Patkelghata Bazar. Over 3,00,000 people in the Kabodak basin villages in Satkhira and Jessore districts remained marooned as water from the silted River Kabodak created waterlogging, speakers said at a rally held during the blockade programme. Over 20,000 people were homeless in the affected areas have been facing acute scarcity of food and pure drinking water, they said, adding that crops on 75,000 acres of land were destroyed as the authorities concerned ignored the longstanding demand. They urged re-excavating the silted up Kobadak River to save the people in the region from persistent waterlogging. They also demanded demolition of all illegal structures on the river, demarcating its boundary, long-term plan to continue dredging of the river, steps to reconnect the river with upstream River Mathabhanga and declaration of the still inundated areas as 'a disaster zone'.