Shrimp farms to face govt actions for damaging embankments

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FE Report
Shrimp farms in the country's southwest have faced a backlash after they are accused of weakening the mud embankments that protected millions of coastal villagers from tidal water.
Embankments on a stretch of 1400 kilometres land gave in or partially damaged when Cyclone Aila with a wind-speed of 90 kilometres per hour slammed into the Khulna-Satkhira coast on May 24.
The cyclone triggered a 12-feet high tidal surge which burst embankments and washed away thousands of villages, leaving at least 179 people dead and more than a million people stranded for over a week.
Villagers have accused the shrimp farms for causing what they say a "man-made tragedy" as the large-scale destruction of the levees meant they can't go home and are now being inundated daily by tidal water.
Food and disaster management minister Abdur Razzak Tuesday admitted that the farms were partly to blame for the damage of the coastal embankments and levees.
"Many of them bore holes into the embankments to bring in salty water from coastal rivers. In the process, they weakened the embankments," Razzak told a press briefing.
Thousands of farms in Bagerhat, Khulna and Satkhira need brackish water to raise shrimps -- mainly lobster and tiger prawn -- which are mainly exported to Europe and North America.
The country last year shipped shirmps amounting to US$537 million, making them the second biggest export items after apparel.
The cabinet led by Sheikh Hasina discussed the issue on Monday and has decided to "take action" against the farms found responsble for eroding the embankments, Razzak said.
The minister said the government has Tuesday ordered armed forces to repair and rebuild the embankments as fast as possible.
He also promised that they would consult with the water development board so that the shrimp farms can use a better technology to draw salty water from the coastal rivers.
"We will make sure that in future these farms don't dig holes into the embankments," he said.
Lobbying group of the farms, the Bangladesh Frozen Food Exporters Association, has said they too suffered huge financial losses as shrimps worth tens of millions of dollars were wiped away by the surge.
The department of fisheries has put the primary losses at Tk 4.3 billion, which include damage to farm infrastructure.
A senior leader of the group, Maqsudur Rahman, ruled out shrimp farmers' hands into the tragedy.
"It would be illogical to blame the shirmp farmers. I don't think boring holes have weakened the embankments," he said.
"It might be the reason for an individual case. But the government should not generalise before proper investigation," he said.
Rahman, a leading exporter, also sought a solution from the authorities "if it is indeed found that the shrimp farmers were partly responsible to the dam destruction.