Amanur Aman, Kushtia The Daily Star, May 7, 2009
Gorai River that once acted as feeder for over a dozen rivers in the south-western region of the country, itself now on the verge of death. Photo: STAR
Once mighty Gorai River, the main branch of the Padma, now sees a lowest ever flow, posing a serious ecological threat to the country’s south-western region.
Due to drastic fall in the flow of Gorai River, at least seven of the 15 rivers dependent on it are now nearly dead while eight others are following.
The nearly dead rivers are Hisna, Kaliganga, Kumar, Hamkumra, Harihar and Chitra.
The 386-kilometre Gorai River, an important source of fresh water in the south-western region, depends on the Padma River for its flow.
As the Padma itself remains lean in the dry season (December-May) for over three decades, Gorai flow during the period also sees gradual decline.
Consequently, intrusion of increased saline water in the costal areas in greater Khulna region poses a serious threat to the world’s largest mangrove forest the Sundarbans.
Increasing salinity in the region also leaves an adverse effect on water quality, nature, fishery, agriculture, navigability and trade in a vast area of the region.
To keep flow of Gorai River normal, successive governments took initiative to dredge the riverbed in 1977, 1983, 1984, 1992 and 1996 but with very little achievements.
In 1996, the then government took a large-scale dredging scheme on the Gorai.
Under the Tk 267.3crore project, 34 km river was dredged in two phases.
But before its maintenance dredging started, the project work was abandoned in 2001 when the government led by BNP took over.
To keep Gorai River alive, around 50,000 to 55,000 cusec of water is necessary in the Padma, the parent river of the Gorai.
The WDB sources said Bangladesh gets on average 38,000 to 42,000 cusec water in last three months of dry season although it was supposed to get 55,000 to 70,000 cusec as per the India-Bangladesh agreement signed in 1996.
Due to withdrawal of Ganges water by India at Farakkar in the upstream, quantity of water in the Padma sees decline every year.
Scanty flow of water in the Padma is also affecting the GK (Ganges-Kobadak) project, which has been used to irrigate around 1.16 lakh hectares of land in the region since 1959.
Meanwhile, responding to the government’s plan to resume excavation of the Gorai River, a group of donors at a meeting yesterday assured the prime minister of extending necessary assistance for it.
Dutch Ambassador in Dhaka Bea Tan Tusscher, German Ambassador Frank Mayke, Japanese Ambassador Masayuki Inoue, World Bank’s acting Country Director Tahaseen Sayed and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) representative Ad Spijkers were present from the donors’ side.
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