Modhumati, Nabaganga river continue to dry up

Livelihood of fishermen threatened

NewAge, June 17, 2008. 

The Modhumati and Nabaganga — two major rivers in Narail — has dried up at different points, affecting the livelihood of a large number of people in the district.
   

Hundreds of people, particularly the fishermen, have become jobless due to continued drying up of the two rivers, according to local sources.
   Fishermen in the district are passing through hard times as they hardly find any fish due to siltation and drastic fall in the water level of the two rivers, the locals said.
   

Even movement of people in small boats is also being hampered due to continued siltation and emergence of a good many shoals in the rivers, they added.
 ‘Now I find it very difficult to earn my livelihood. I have no alternative to earning as continued siltation has made the river almost dead,’ a fisherman living near the River Modhumoti, said.
   

The two rivers lost their navigability long ago forcing the service of water vessels including steamer and launches to stop.
 The rivers once played a vital role in transportation of merchandise and movement of people to different places.
 A good many market places had been developed near the banks of the rivers passing through three upazilas of the district— sadar, Lohagora and Kalia upazilas.
 These market places always remained abuzz with trade activities.
   

Farmers living in the river-side areas, who used to irrigate their crop fields with the water from these rivers, cannot use river water now due to siltation and fall in the water level.
   The sharp fall in the water level of the two rivers and their tributaries has resulted in almost disappearance of fish, local sources said.
 Once various kinds of fish were found aplenty in the two rivers and fishermen got huge catch.
   

The ferry services on the Baroipara-Kalia, Kalna-vatiapara, Phordanga-Gopalgonj and Bardia-Mahajan routes are also frequently disrupted due to shoals at several points of the rivers.
The total area of shoals in the two rivers covers around 3,000 hectares, according to sources at the Department of Agriculture Extension, Narail.


Local people have long been demanding that the government should immediately dredge the rivers to increase their navigability of the two rivers.