1.
The Baral of North Bengal is an exceptional river. Most of the rivers in Bangladesh flow in a north-south direction. On the other hand, the Baral mainly flows in an east-west direction. Originating from the Ganges (Padma) in Charghat upazila of Rajshahi, this river flows east-south through Natore, Pabna and Sirajganj districts, joins the Hursagar River and joins the Jamuna near Baghabari.
An important feature of the Baral is that it is the connecting river between the Padma and the Jamuna; at least it used to be so. Another feature of this river is that it is the main river of the vast Chalanbil of Rajshahi division.
Almost all the rivers flowing from the north, such as Atrai, Nagar, Shiva, Barnal, Karatoya, Gumani, Hursagar, either separately or in conjunction with other rivers, merge with the Baral River. As a result, the Baral River was the river that balanced the flow height of the Padma-Yamuna, using the Chalanbil as a huge storage reservoir.
Once upon a time, this river was navigable by large sailing merchant boats. The Baral kept the entire Chalanbil area alive, provided water for agriculture and served as a reservoir for many species of fish. The Baral was considered a very important river not only for the Rajshahi division but also for the entire Padma-Jamuna basin.
2.
The wrong policies and actions of Bangladesh’s policymakers regarding rivers have literally ‘killed’ this river. The process began in 1984; when a sluice gate with only three gates was built at the source of the Baral, with a total length of about 30 feet. When open, the mouth of the Baral was about 500 feet wide and through it, an average of about 20,000 cusecs of Padma water entered the Baral River during the rainy season.
After the construction of the sluice gate, its volume quickly decreased to an average of about 5,000 cusecs. Apart from the small width, another important factor was the height of the sluice gate platform, which was 10.2 meters (PWD). As a result, the water of the Padma was also obstructed due to the height and siltation occurred at the mouth of the sluice gate. Soon the Baral River was separated from the Padma River.
The Bangladesh Water Development Authority was not satisfied with just building sluice gates at Charghat; in 1995, they built two more sluice gates at Atghari (where a tributary called Nandakuja originates from the Baral River and flows north). Out of these, a five-gate sluice gate faces the Nandakuja and a single-gate sluice gate faces the main Baral. It is astonishing to think that a single-gate sluice gate can be built on a river, and it makes one cry!
These sluice gates further accelerated the process of killing the Baral. The Baral River was completely lost from Atghari to Baraigram, and from there to Nurnagar, many earthen embankments were built on the river, as a result of which the river turned into several closed reservoirs.
This is how the once living Baral river turns into a ‘dead’ river. The people call it the ‘Dead Baral’.
Needless to say, the Water Development Authority is being assisted in this process of river murder by local unscrupulous politicians and influential people who seize river land, take out fishing leases in the river that has become a closed reservoir, and earn profits from various contracting work.
3.
After this ‘untimely death’ of the river, the anger and sorrow of the general public of Baralpar knew no bounds. They formed the ‘Baral Raksha Andolan’. Bangladesh Environment Movement (BAPA), Bangladesh Environment Network (BEN), Bangladesh Environment Lawyers Association (BELA) and other environmental and river protection organizations came forward to support them.
Through their efforts, the issue of the Baral River was included in the agenda of the government’s river task force. The chairman of the task force and other government officials visited the Baral area several times. Public meetings were held and they promised the local people to free the Baral River.
In 2013, a human chain of about 200 kilometers was organized along the banks of the Baral River under the initiative of the ‘Baral Raksha Andolan’. The Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) filed a writ petition in the High Court regarding this matter. In response to this writ, the High Court ordered the government in 2019 to ‘unblock the flow of the Baral River’.
In the wake of this High Court ruling, four earthen embankments built over the ‘dead’ Baral were removed and a bridge was built there. But the source of the problem, namely the sluice gates at Charghat and Atghari, were not removed.
The Water Development Authority excavated a 1,800-meter-long soil channel at the source of the Baral River with the Padma. But due to the sluice gate at Charghat, this soil excavation cannot have any permanent effect. This is because the excavated part is filled back up due to siltation.
River conservation groups pressed the task force to fully implement the High Court order on the Baral River. The Water Development Authority then resorted to bureaucratic trickery. They argued that a study should be conducted to determine the potential impact of the sluice gates before they were removed.
Thus, an attempt was made to stop the entire process of releasing the baral. It was informed that the Water Development Board (PUB) would conduct such a study through the Institute of Water Modelling (IWM).
4.
After almost 10 years, in 2018, IWM presented a report on the ‘Detailed Feasibility Study, including Environmental and Social Impact Assessment, for the Restoration of Water Resources in the Baral Basin’.
This study stated that it is not advisable to try to divert the Padma water to Baral during the dry season because the water level of the Padma drops significantly during the dry season due to the influence of Farakka.
In such a situation, the IWM’s main recommendation is to only divert the Padma’s monsoon flow towards Baral at a higher rate. However, to do this, the IWM makes a novel recommendation. That is, to build another two-gate regulator next to the existing sluice gate at Charghat.
The people of the Baral basin are demanding the removal of sluice gates and they have been fighting for this demand for almost 20 years. What is more
, while the High Court has ordered the unimpeded flow of the Baral, the IWM is recommending the construction of more sluice gates!
Notably, the IWM said that 10 possible scenarios were identified to arrive at the recommendations for Baral, and scenario 8 was considered the best of them. But none of these 10 scenarios included the removal of the Charghat sluice gate.
The main point of interest (what would be the impact of removing the Charghat sluice gate) was not examined in this study. Instead, IWM prepared a project for Paubo worth Tk 1,360 crore.
A large part of this money has been earmarked for river dredging. This includes dredging 110 kilometers of the ‘dead’ Baral. In addition, partial dredging of the Musakhan and Narad rivers has been added. But the benefits of dredging will not be permanent unless the Padma’s monsoon flow in the Baral River can be ensured.
It is noteworthy that if the river mouth cannot be opened sufficiently, the Padma’s monsoon flow will not reach Baral. For this, it is necessary to remove the sluice gates of Charghat and build a bridge based on the original width of the river (at least 500 feet long).
It is also worth noting that the new regulator proposed by IWM will have a platform height of 9.2 meters. As a result, this will also cause siltation at the entrance of the Baral and will not contribute to solving the Baral problem.
5.
IWM has expressed various concerns that if there is no regulator at Charghat, an area of 270 square kilometers will be flooded. By this, IWM has shown a failure to understand the true nature of Bangladesh’s water problem and is blindly imitating the polder approach imposed by the Dutch.
This ‘polder approach’ has disrupted the entire Chalanbil. Following this approach, the polders A, B, C and D built in the basins of the Atrai and Barnai rivers in the northern part of the Chalanbil have destroyed the natural character of the Chalanbil. In the south, the southern part of the Baral basin, including the Ichamati river, has been blocked in the name of the Pabna Irrigation Project. In the east, the flow of the Jamuna towards the Chalanbil has been stopped by blocking the connection of eight rivers in the name of the Brahmaputra Right Bank Protection Dam.
Chalanbil is on the verge of disappearing today in the face of this all-out attack based on the polder approach (for a comprehensive discussion of the futility of the Dutch polder approach for Bangladesh, see the author’s recent books Water Development in Bangladesh: Current Crisis and Alternative Path Proposals and Water Development in Bangladesh: Past, Present and Future ).
The Beel will flood during the monsoon season—this is expected and necessary. The people are in favor of this flooding and that is why they want the Charghat regulator removed. Unfortunately, the IWM researchers were not able to understand this simple logic!
6.
In the case of rivers or water resources, material interests have become more important than logic. Given the situation, anyone can say that Paubo and IWM are ‘careful’ in protecting each other’s material interests. Paubo gives IWM the task of preparing a large-budget study. In return, IWM gives such recommendations as ‘gifts’ that allow Paubo to prepare large-budget projects. In this web of material interests, the interests of the river and the people become secondary.
It was thought that some changes would come in this regard after the mass uprising in July 2024. The interests of the people would prevail. The inclusion of Syeda Rizwana Hasan, one of the friends of the Baral protection movement, as an advisor to the Ministry of Water Resources in the interim government formed as a result of the mass uprising had instilled hope in the minds of the people of the Baral basin. But even then, there has been no visible progress in the last 9 months regarding the release of Baral. So will our hope ultimately turn into despair?
- Dr. Nazrul Islam Professor, Asian Growth Research Institute and former Head of Development Research at the United Nations
Source: Prothom Alo
