Illegal structures are going up again on the slope of the Water Development Board (WDB) embankment in the Gangamati Dholai Market area of Kuakata, Patuakhali. Trees planted by the Forest Department are being cut down to make room, and at least 12 new shops have appeared in a single month. The encroachers work late at night to avoid interference.

A visit to the site found numerous structures, large and small, along the river side of the embankment from the Mirabari area of Kuakata beach to the Jhaubagan. From the Gangamati bridge to Dholai Market, wooden and tin houses are being put up on both sides of the dyke. Local people fear the embankment, rebuilt at great public expense, is losing its durability and that the risk of a storm surge is growing.

In 2019, the government began rebuilding 39 kilometres of the embankment of Polder 48 in Kalapara to save the Kuakata-Gangamati tourist area from erosion. With World Bank support and at a cost of about Tk 150 crore, the 39 kilometres were repaired, both the river and country sides were planted with trees, concrete blocks were laid against the waves and nine sluice gates were made operational. To remove 673 illegal structures from the slope, the government paid Tk 7,31,65,637 in compensation. That investment is now being undone.

Md. Alamgir Hossain, the Gangamati beat officer, says his staff are on duty regularly but the houses are built at night behind their backs, and the encroachers ignore warnings. A local trader, speaking on condition of anonymity, says the hammering starts as soon as Forest Department staff leave, and some of the shops are quietly sold on the same night at high prices.

Ibrahim, a trader who has taken one of the new shops at Dholai Market, says it was built for him by Rakib, whose father was among those compensated and moved out earlier. Rakib admits it, saying he rebuilt on the strength of his father's old shop and rents it out for Tk 1,500 a month. Obaidullah, another occupier, says the land was his family's ancestral property and that he will leave if the WDB asks. Md. Badal Sardar, general secretary of the Dholai Market traders' association, says the association has given nobody permission.

Md. Shah Alam, executive engineer of the WDB in Kalapara, says public announcements have been made to remove illegal structures around the beach and eviction notices have already been served on the Dholai Market occupiers. Md. Yasin Sadeq, a member of the Kuakata sea beach management committee and administrator of the municipality (assistant commissioner, land), says an eviction drive will follow shortly.

A coastal embankment and the trees on its slope are more than a tourist area's scenery: in a cyclone or surge they are the first line of defence for the cropland, the fish enclosures and the settlements inside the polder. Occupying the slope and felling the trees is therefore a direct risk to farming and livelihoods.

Based on a report by Samakal's Kuakata (Patuakhali) correspondent.

Source: Samakal