Irrigation suffers as canal grabbed for fish farming

The five-kilometre long Mongolbaria Canal in Borobaishdia union of Patuakhali's Rangabali upazila was once an important resource for farmers and households, with over four hundred families relying on its water for agricultural and domestic use. Connected at both ends to rivers the canal was a dependable water source that prevented flooding. But for at least the last decade the canal has been occupied by an influential local, to be run instead as a fish farm, with the community missing out.

“Cultivation of over 400 acres of land relies on this canal water,” says local farmer Abul Kashem. “For the last ten years we haven't been able to grow Aus or Aman paddy.”

“The adjacent land is submerged during the rainy season and during the dry season the lack of water is a serious obstacle to cultivating our land,” says neighbouring farmer Abul Bashar Gazi.

“I tried to grow mung beans on two acres of land this year and suffered a loss of over Tk 1 lakh due to insufficient water,” says another farmer Jahangir Talukder. “We can't even rear goats or cows for lack of water access.”

In January this year at least 38 local farmers requested Patuakhali's deputy commissioner to take steps to free the canal. A subsequent report on the issue prepared by a union-level assistant land officer was submitted to the deputy commissioner's office on 27 February, recommending steps be taken to remove the fish enclosures. The deputy commissioner asked the relevant upazila nirbahi officer to take action. To date, nothing has changed.

The woes of the local community regarding the canal began fifteen years ago when the Bangladesh Water Development Board blocked both entrances to the canal with flood control dams, which served to starve the canal of water during the dry season and resulted in localised flooding during the monsoon months. Later, a sluice gate was built to connect the canal with the Tulatali Canal such that water flow returned to normal.

But then, ten years ago local Hasan Talukder commenced fish cultivation on the canal, building five enclosures there. “I took a three-year lease on the canal from the Youth Development Department in 2008,” he says. “I didn't apply to renew the lease because the political situation wasn't favourable.”

Talukder is locally influential. According to Borobaishdia's chairman Abu Hasanat Abdullah, to remove the fish enclosures now would threaten law and order in the area.

Meanwhile Rangabali's Upazila Nirbahi Officer Md Sadiqur Rahman says, “We asked the local union council to remove the enclosures from the canal but they have not taken any step to do so.

Recently the upazila chairman Delwer Hossain was requested to take responsibility to solve the problem, but he is currently travelling abroad. If he fails to resolve the issue I will take action after Ramadan.”