CropsBetween 25,000 and 30,000 farmers in five Satkhira upazilas could not plant aman this season because their land is permanently waterlogged. Re-dug canals added about 450 hectares of aman this year.
HealthThe government will set up special committees in 20 zones of Dhaka's two city corporations to oversee dengue prevention, cleaning, canal demarcation and re-excavation, and tree planting.
CropsThe environment ministry says a pilot this year will supply surplus soil from canal excavation to licensed brick kilns as raw material; some 8,000 kilns now burn farmland topsoil.
CropsOf 572 listed flowing canals in Khulna district, 32 are being dug or re-excavated this year; farmers hope the work will give them irrigation water in the dry season and drain their fields faster in the monsoon.
EnvironmentReviewing the Water Development Board and WARPO, the Committee on Public Undertakings urged sediment management, a review of dredging, fewer deep tube-wells in stressed areas and one policy for canal digging.
CropsKhulna, Bagerhat, Satkhira and Narail planted aman on 290,010 hectares against a target of 289,859; the region aims for 856,974 tonnes of rice.
Two canals in Gutudia union of Dumuria, Khulna, have been filled in for roads and buildings; villagers who fear waterlogged farmland protested after the pair were dropped from the excavation list.
More than 200 people in Kuptala and Kholahati unions of Gaibandha Sadar re-excavated and cleared an old canal in Jhinia beel by voluntary labour after years of waterlogging ruined boro and aman harvests.
A technical committee will review which projects can use binna grass, the vetiver that grows untended on fallow land across the country.
Hundreds of trees planted under social forestry along a Faridpur canal have been felled during re-excavation, and officials and a BNP leader blame each other.
