The coastal district of Satkhira has long battled salinity brought by climate change. After cyclones, broken embankments and tidal water repeatedly destroyed farmland, farming had been trying to recover through various initiatives. Now saline water let in at night through an opened sluice gate in Assasuni upazila has put food security under fresh threat.

Locals allege that miscreants lifted the shutters of the Kalki sluice gate and let saline water from the Kapotaksha river flow through a canal into about 10,000 bighas of paddy fields in at least eight villages. Wide areas of Khajra and Baradal unions have gone under water, and the season's last paddy crop is being destroyed.

On the ground, fields in Gajuyakati, Rautara, Goaldanga, Pirojpur, Khalia, Fatikkhali and other villages now lie under a layer of saline water. In many fields the paddy had not been harvested before it went under, and in places ponds have filled with salt water.

Shibaprasad Mondal, a retired assistant professor from the affected village of Gajuyakati, said the shutters of the sluice gate were lifted in the dark about 15 days earlier. "Paddy on hundreds of bighas in our eastern and western beels has been ruined. Trees are dying too," he said.

Farmer Satish Chandra Baidya said: "The harvest is not over yet, and meanwhile salt water has come in and is finishing everything. Now it is not just the crop; there is a crisis of drinking water and water for cattle as well."

By locals' reckoning, about 1,500 bighas have been damaged in Rautara village alone, and thousands more bighas have gone under water in Goaldanga, Pirojpur, Durgapur, Khalia and other villages.

UP member Rampada Sana said the water had been coming in for the past two weeks, when the paddy in many fields had not yet been cut.

Locals allege that an organised gang deliberately opened the sluice gate to catch fish. Several people who did not want to be named said the gate is controlled by an influential group, who used heavy machinery to lift the shutters. No one has formally admitted responsibility.

Habibur Rahman, member secretary of the Khajra Union River and Canal Protection Citizens' Committee, said there has been no supervisory committee since the sluice gate was repaired. "Taking this chance, a scheming group is letting in salt water and catching fish. If action is not taken quickly, farmers will lose everything," he said. He added that he had spoken to officials of the Water Development Board, who had promised quick action.

Assasuni upazila nirbahi officer Shyama Nanda Kundu said: "I have visited the site. The matter will be investigated and action taken against those responsible."

Experts say coastal agriculture is increasingly at risk from saline water entering through broken embankments caused by climate change, falling river navigability and weak water management. While the government is trying to restore farming through various projects, human interference of this kind is a major setback to those efforts.

Local farmers fear that unless the sluice gate is quickly closed, the water brought under control and effective steps taken to restore the damaged land, food production in this coastal area will be badly hit, which could also affect overall food security.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.