Haor seedbeds still under water

The year 2017 will long be remembered in the areas of the haor wetlands of Sunamganj as an annus horribilis. Excessive rain and flash floods marked the year as one in which local farmers lost their mainstay Boro rice harvest and along with it, just about all hope.

Worse still, high water levels will likely delay the cultivation of Boro paddy in the coming season too, and according to the Water Resources Minister who visited the area recently, farmers should be prepared for the potential of an even bigger blow, regular flash flooding. As winter settles over the haors, farmers eager to prepare for the next Boro paddy cultivation, are frustrated.

“Last year we lost our harvest to unseasonal and heavy rain, so this year we'd hoped to prepare our Boro paddy seedbeds early,” says Jashim Uddin, a farmer from Shanir Haor in Tahirpur upazila. “But residual waterlogging is thwarting our plans.” Farmers are very concerned that the delay now increases the risk of rain delivering a repeatedcatastrophe befalling next year's harvest.

“The water level is still so high that the lands we would normally use for Boro seedbeds are unavailable,” says Abdul Jalil, a farmer from Dakshinkul Balijuri in Tahirpur. “Normally that land is above water by mid-November.”Indeed the prospects for the timely production of Boro seedlings look grim.

On a recent field visit, it was observed by The Daily Star that water continues to flow into Shanir and Halir haors from the Boulai river. Normally at this time of year it would not be the case. “Farmers have nothing to do but wait,” says the deputy director of the Department of Agriculture Extension in Sunamganj Md Jahedul Haque. “But if seedbed work is undertaken too late no doubt the risk of the next harvest being affected by flash floods will be greater.”

The damage caused by the floods that hit the region from the end of March cannot be underestimated. In Sunamganj district alone 113,000 of 166,000 hectares of Boro paddy remained submerged and were left to rot. With crop losses also recorded in adjoining districts, the disaster in rice production took on the proportions of a national crisis.

Much of last season's catastrophe has been blamed on negligence and corruption by the Water Development Board, its contractors and the project implementation committee responsible for the construction and maintenance of embankments. To this backdrop, the Board now plans to spend Tk 28 crore on urgent flood prevention works this financial year. While the planned expenditure is sizeable, many local administrative officials believe it is insufficient. They want a further Tk 70 crore to be spent on ensuring the haors are resistant to excessive flooding.

Furthermore, with at total of 84 flood prevention works from the 2015-16 financial year, and a further 76 works from this financial year yet to be completed, confidence in the Board's remedial efforts is far from being taken for granted. Activists worry that if corruption and negligence in construction tenders and works persist, the same mistakes risk repetition.

On the plus side, a new structure for the project implementation committee has been approved and the 2010 guideline relevant to budget expenditure on embankments and dredging works updated, with the inclusion of district and upazila officials mandated.

According to the Board, the planned dredging of 98.125 kilometres across six key rivers has already commenced. Nonetheless, Kashmir Reza, the president of a concerned community group, argues that the master plan for the haors which was created in 2012 needs to be implemented as soon as possible. “The emergency response fund must be preserved,” he says, “and a technological response to rapidly address embankment breaches at times of flooding should be developed.”

“The haor master plan will be implemented soon,” said Water Resources Minister Anisul Islam Mahmud during a recent visit to inspect dredging works. “The height of embankments will be raised if research concludes it will not harm the haors.” With regard to the current waterlogging he offered no solution. “We have nothing to do,” he said. “We have to wait for water levels to subside naturally before cultivation can start, and before the works planned to commence in late December and early January can begin.”