An irrigation canal bank in Parbatipur upazila of Dinajpur was to be rebuilt with earth carried in from outside the project area. Instead, excavators are cutting the cultivated land on both banks of the canal, in places 10 to 12 feet deep, and piling that soil on the embankment. The Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) confirmed the irregularity during its own site visit, ordered the work stopped verbally, and has since written to the contractor twice.

The work falls under a project titled the rehabilitation and extension of the command area of the Teesta Irrigation Project, which is rehabilitating and strengthening 12.200 kilometres of both banks of the canal known as T1S8D. According to the board's Parbatipur water development sub-division, the scheme covers 440 metres of RCC casting, 10 kilometres of CC lining, and the remainder strengthened with earth alone. The cost is set at Tk 13.95 crore.

Under the work order the contractor is required to bring in about 59,708 cubic metres of earth from outside the project area to rebuild the embankment, and roughly Tk 2,38,83,000 was set aside for that alone. The contract went to Md Mizanur Alam. Work was to begin on 1 December 2022 and finish by 30 December 2024; two extensions have moved the deadline to 30 December this year. The contractor has so far billed Tk 7.72 crore against 55.50 per cent of the work shown as complete.

The canal leaves the Teesta barrage at Debiganj in Chirirbandar upazila and runs as S8D to Adamkata in Parbatipur; the branch under repair, T1S8D, begins at Malipara and ends near the Rampura government primary school in Parbatipur after passing Majhapara, Chakla, the Kharkharia river and the edge of Syedpur town. Along the canal, excavators were seen lifting soil from both banks and no earth was being brought in from elsewhere. Houses on the bank have been moved in several places, bamboo, banana and other trees have been felled, and in places soil sliding from the bank is obstructing the flow of water.

Johurul Islam, a resident of Malipara, said he learned a few days after the work started that the soil was to come from outside. "Later I saw no soil was brought in at all — it was being cut from beside the canal," he said. Raihan Ali of the same area said the canal is more than 30 years old and is being repaired for the first time. "But the soil of our land has been cut and put on the bank. Many people's paddy plants have been destroyed," he said.

Alongside the complaint about the soil, the board has also recorded substandard construction material at the site. In a letter dated 31 August, sub-divisional engineer G M Raisul Islam told the contractor to remove the poor-quality material used for the CC lining and to use what the work order specifies. The letter added that the inspection found earth lifted from acquired land next to the canal and placed on the embankment, and that the earth laid along the CC lining and RCC drain sections did not match the tender.

A board official said local contractors, among them Khademul Islam, are carrying out the job on a sublease from the main contractor; the work stopped for a long stretch after the fall of the government, restarted about two months later and is now halted again. The main contractor, Md Mizanur Alam, said the contract is in his name but locals are executing it on sublease. "I do not know of any irregularity or problem in the work. No letter has reached my hands either," he said.

Akhinuzzaman, executive engineer of the Syedpur Water Development Board, said the complaint was that soil from adjoining land was being placed on the embankment. "We found it to be true on the spot and immediately ordered the work stopped verbally. A letter was later sent to the contracting firm. If we receive any further complaint it will be examined and action taken," he said. A firm canal bank makes it easier to move water through the Teesta command area in the boro season — but when the cropland on the bank is dug away to build it, the farmers along the canal pay for that gain.

The report is by Raziul Islam, Prothom Alo's Dinajpur correspondent.

Source: Prothom Alo