Illegal sand lifting poses threat to bridge

A local Awami League leader is extracting sand as landfill from the Senua River around 50 metres from an important bridge on Thakurgaon-Patiadangi road at Barunagaon village in Thakurgaon Sadar upazila.   

Hollowing out of the river bed at the site poses a threat to the concrete pillars of the nearby bailey bridge that serves as a link between the district headquarters and about fifteen villages, say experts and locals.

   It also poses a threat to a high-voltage electric pole that is 10 metres from the sand lifting site, they added.     

During a visit on Sunday morning, this correspondent saw several workers extracting sand with a diesel-run dredger near the important bridge. 

The sand is being brought through plastic pipes to raise the level of low land about 300 metres away. 

"The dredging machine has been hired at a rate of Tk 1.20 for lifting one square foot of sand. We have been extracting sand for the last six days and another two weeks will be needed to fill the land," says Ratan Sarcar, 32, a worker engaged in the sand lifting.   

 Mokbul Hossain, 45, of Barunagaon village told this correspondent that the age-old bridge is already in a bad condition. It shakes even when a motorbike plies it. Warning signboards saying 'risky bridge' have been installed on both sides of the bridge.  

Ram Chandra Barman, 42, of the village says the river is normally 2-3 feet deep, but sand lifting has created a deep hole at one point in the river.

Such ditches have become death traps for people, especially children, who bathe there. Two or three children drown in ditches created by sand lifting in the Senua and Tangon rivers every year.

Bablur Rahman, a local Awami League leader and former councillor of Thakurgaon municipality is responsible. He told this correspondent that he is extracting sand from his land for landfill purposes.

Bablur says the place from where sand is being lifted is his ancestral land as per land documents, and that he took permission from the Water Development Board (WDB) and the district administration to undertake the work.

Shariful Islam, executive engineer of Thakurgaon WDB, told this correspondent that nobody took permission to lift sand from the Senua River.

Shariful says they do not allow extraction of sand within 100-metres from a bridge or embankment. "We will look into the matter and then decide what to do," he said.   

Shahanur Rahman, executive engineer of the LGED, said sand lifting within 100 metres of a bridge adversely affects the concrete pillars, although the damage may not be visible immediately.   

 Contacted, Nazmul Habib Reza, revenue deputy collector (RDC) told this correspondent that the district administration is yet to provide permission to extract sand from the river, though Bablur has submitted an application in this regard.

The RDC said they will decide what to do after talking with the deputy commissioner.