Water is draining unusually fast from Matian haor in Tahirpur, Sunamganj, this year. Farmers fear they will have to plant boro rice before the proper season, which would expose the crop to more risk from natural disasters and cut output. A temporary dam is now being built at the mouth of the haor's Nandia canal to hold the water back.
Farmers say seed rice used to be sown in the haor after 15 November; this year, with the water falling so fast, sowing in every haor of the upazila will be over by 15 November. Sirajul Islam, general secretary of the Matian Haor Development Committee, said the Nandia embankment burst in a hill-water surge in the month of Jyoishtho last year, leaving a 360-foot channel through which the water is now running out.
Committee members took the problem to the Water Development Board and the upazila nirbahi officer, Ripamoni Debi. She visited the canal with them and assessed whether its mouth could be dammed. The upazila council then allocated Tk 1.5 lakh, and the Water Development Board agreed to supply geo-bags.
Samayun Kabir, member for ward 7 of Baradal Dakshin union, said work began on Friday; in two days 300 bamboo posts have been driven across the 360-foot channel, and he expects the job to be finished within a few days, though it will need about Tk 50,000 more.
Local farmers say that if the dam is finished quickly they can plant boro safely and on time this year, with less risk of losing the crop and a better harvest; thousands of farming families in the haor are waiting on it.
Ripamoni Debi said the haor's water was falling fast and the upazila council and the Water Development Board had moved to close the canal to keep water in this season. Planting at the right time would mean a good harvest, she said. The report is by Samakal's Tahirpur correspondent.
Photo: Press Information Department / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
Source: samakal
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