Louhajang river clean up drive to begin

Tangail district administrations will begin a drive to clean up Louhajang river tomorrow.

Around 2,000 volunteers of BD Clean from across the country will join the efforts to clean 2.5-kilometre stretch of the river from Housing area to Beradoma area of the town in the first phase of the drive, said Md Kaiserul Islam, deputy commissioner of Tangail, at a press briefing today.

Steps will be taken to prevent further pollution of the river, while eviction drive against encroachers will begin in time, he also said.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh Water Development Board has submitted a detailed project plan for a Tk 124 crore project for excavation, beautification and other works for Louhajang river. The project is now under the consideration of the Planning Commission, said Sazzad Hossain, executive engineer of BWDB in Tangail.

Originating from Dhaleswari river in Baisnavbari area under Sadar upazila, the 76-km long Louhajang flows through the district town and falls into Bangshi river in Mirzapur upazila.

Due to years of rampant encroachment, indiscriminate pollution, alongside siltation due to a sluice gate, the once mighty river has lost its natural flow and now resembles a dead, dirty canal.

The then district administration in 2016 took initiative to evict illegal encroachers from 1.5km stretch of the riverbank in the municipality area. The drive got suspended after a few structures were evicted.

On February 25, 2020, the drive was resumed and 450 illegal structures in Sadar upazila were identified for eviction. However, it was suspended again facing controversy over demarcating the river's area and identifying river grabbers.