A group of local influential leaders have been extracting sand from the Meghna in Brahmanbaria’s Sarail upazila every day for almost two weeks, showing a fake lease with the permission to do so when questioned by locals. Asked, the local administration denied granting permission to any such group to extract sand from there. However, they are also doing nothing to stop the illegal dredging. Unabated sand mining could result in the collapse of the riverbed and also cause erosion. PHOTO: MASUK HRIDOY
Children of Gabura village in Satkhira’s Shyamnagar upazila walk home after filling their water pitchers from a tube well around two kilometers away. The people of at least four different villages depend on that one tube well, the water of which also has mild salinity. Many villages in Khulna’s coastal upazilas -- Koira, Dakop, Paikgachha -- and five coastal upazilas in Satkhira, including Ashashuni and Shyamnagar, have all been suffering from fresh water crises, as most of the ponds have dried up during the dry season. PHOTO: HABIByUR RAHMAN
