Editorial
Serious turn in river erosion
Govt. response still inadequate
River erosion is perhaps as old as the rivers themselves but monsoon is the season when it occurs with great intensity.
Six villages have been severely affected by river erosion in Manikganj. The Kaliganga river devoured hundreds of houses, many acres of land and damaged pucca roads rendering families homeless and landless. In Choto Raghunathpur village alone, only one man lost nearly two acres of land this year. People are running for shelters to nearby villages.
It is all so very known and predictable. Besides, there are the Landsat images which are available pinpointing the erosion trends so vulnerable banks can be mapped out. But there seems to be no conscious effort to plan in advance for the contingencies.
Erosion control should be a part and parcel of flood preparedness strategy which the disaster management authorities will have to be responsible for. The local administration, political leaders and communities of the vulnerable areas ought to combine efforts to tackle the crisis contain erosion and rehabilitate the affected.
The need is to mobilise people and provide them with adequate logistics to put up strong embankments to prevent land from getting washed away. Adequate funds should also be made available to support protection and rehabilitation works.
The allegations are reportedly rife that part of the funds allocated by the government for protection works is misappropriated by contractors, local influentials, law makers and administration officials.
So, on the one hand, there should be contingency plan to contain river erosion and on the other have built-in measures to curb corruption. Let us not forget that a large part of rural pauperisation and consequent migration to cities is driven by river erosion.
We have to tackle the problem at the roots with timely intervention otherwise the millennium development goal in respect of reduction of poverty will elude fulfillment.
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