Sunamganj district grows only one crop a year, and about 30 lakh people in the district depend on that single Boro crop. In 2017, early floods submerged and destroyed the entire crop because of rampant corruption by the Water Development Board and contractors in building crop protection embankments, and the whole district cried out for food. Then in 2022, early floods broke 23 embankments in 10 upazilas of the district, causing extensive damage to farmers' crops.

It was essentially after the entire crop was lost in 2017 that the government took notice. Since then it has supervised embankment work in Sunamganj's haors with great importance and allocated more money for it. Every year, embankment construction, renovation and repair is supposed to begin on 15 December and end on 28 February. This year work also began on 15 December, but because it was not all finished in time, the deadline was extended a second time to 7 March. That deadline has also passed, yet the work is still not 100 per cent complete, and the haor farmers are alarmed.

Officials of the Sunamganj Water Development Board say 90 to 95 per cent of the embankment work has been completed, but haor leaders claim only 60 per cent has been done so far.

Compared with the past few years, the government has increased the scope and budget of Sunamganj's crop protection embankment work this year. Tk 203 crore has been allocated for building, renovating and repairing 745 km of embankment, against Tk 123 crore last year. Project implementation committees (PICs) are formed to carry out the work, and 1,076 PICs are working this year. However, local farmers and haor leaders also have complaints about how the PICs were formed.

Enquiries found that work was unfinished at Gaglakhali and Shoitankhali in Dharmapasha; the embankment near Abidnagar Bazar and the Jinaira embankment in Madhyanagar; projects 19 and 14 in Mahalia haor and the Banoya embankment in Matian haor in Tahirpur; old Ganiyakhara in Halir haor in Jamalganj; and projects 2, 28 and 35 in Nainda haor in Dowarabazar. In Shalla, two important embankments at 34 Bhanda Beel haor and Bhera Mohona, and PICs 1, 9, 10, 11, 14 and 18 in Naluar haor in Jagannathpur, have not been fully completed.

There was no sign of bamboo bracing or sandbags being used to strengthen most embankments. Even the earthwork of projects 69, 70, 71 and 72 in Tahirpur upazila has not been finished, and grass planting and compaction to make the embankments durable also remain.

Farmers said weak embankments built out of season would not withstand a large surge of water. Rain will start before the soil in the embankments is compacted, and then there will be a risk of the embankments collapsing or breaching. "We are very worried about getting the rice home," they said.

Robi Mia, a farmer in Matian haor, told Jago News that even the earth-filling work in Matian haor had not been finished. "Rain will start in a few days. Now I am worried about bringing the haor's rice home."

Chitta Ranjan Talukdar, member secretary of the Haorer Krishi O Krishak Raksha Sangram Parishad, said the situation was the same across the district. On many embankments, the project implementation committees had dumped earth carelessly and declared the work complete without finishing the grass planting. "This is truly regrettable," he said.

Abu Sufian, president of the central committee of the Haor Bachao Sunamganj Bachao Andolon, told Jago News that the Water Development Board says 95 per cent of the work is done, but on the ground, even after two extensions, only 60 per cent of the work has been done in the haors. What is more, because of the poor-quality work, the embankments will break with the rainwater itself once rain begins, he said.

However, Sunamganj Water Development Board executive engineer Mamun Howlader told Jago News that the haor embankment work was in its final stage, with 95 to 97 per cent completed, and that all the work would be finished within 3 to 4 days.

Sunamganj Deputy Commissioner Didare Alam Mohammad Maksud Chowdhury told Jago News that the government was supervising the crop protection embankment work in Sunamganj's haors with great importance. If anyone is found negligent or any irregularity is detected in the embankment work, the administration will take legal action, he said.

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