OUR CORRESPONDENT
SYLHET, Jan 21: The much-hyped dredging project in the Surma River aiming to protect the Sylhet city and neighbouring areas from flooding could not bring any significant results for various reasons.
On the other hand, environmental activists and locals accused the Water Development Board (WDB) of resorting to various irregularities in implementing the project.
They alleged that due to the irregularities committed by the WDB, the city people could not get the actual benefits from the Tk500 million (Tk50crore) dredging scheme.
However, WDB sources said they initiated the major work in May last year but failed to complete it due to flood. However, the remaining work was completed later.
Abdul Hasib, a senior citizen and businessman of the city's Kalighat area, terming the project a wrong-planned one, said the entire project has been ruined, allowing the total Tk500 million fund to go down the drain.
Contacted, Sylhet City Corporation (SCC) Chief Engineer Nur Azizur Rahman said that they weren't even consulted although the dredging project was taken up for saving the city and neighbouring areas from water stagnation and flooding.
In fact the project was designed following some ministers' visit to the region three years ago after severe flooding hit the city too.
Amid a drastic fall in the river's navigability, flood plunged most parts of the city while prolonged inundation caused sufferings for local habitants.
At that time, locals and experts stressed the need for doing necessary dredging work in the Surma River.
Against this backdrop, the 15.05 km dredging project was taken up. But some SCC officials cast doubt about the project duly benefitting the city dwellers.
The WDB started the work in January 2023 and completed it by June 2024 somehow in a 15 km area of the Surma River in the city.
A number of locals were doubtful about the ultimate achievement of the project. They said that dredging should to be started from the very starting point of the river at Amolshid.
Contacted, WDB's Executive Engineer Dipok Ranjan Das said that the dredging work had been hampered due to accumulation of polythene bags and plastic goods in various places.
"Despite that we completed work somehow before June last year. Now we are doing some patch works as liability only," he added.
BELA's Sylhet region Coordinator Shah Shaheda told this correspondent that the project was a wrong-planned one as the problem of water stagnancy or flooding was not to be resolved by dredging 15 km area only in the middle of the river.
For increasing the navigability or to raise the water flow, there should be a programme to dredge the river's starting point at Amolshid border.
The Surma River and its tributaries should also be dredged for a long term solution, she added. Otherwise the dried part of the river would soon be filled up.
But the canals and natural streams should be kept clear always while the river dredging should be done in every two or three years, she suggested.
Otherwise it would be hard to get desired benefits from such dredging, she noted.
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