Hastening process of land accretion in coastal areas
Friday, 1 August 2008
Most of the externally provided information about the geographical and environmental future of Bangladesh are darkly pessimistic ones, most of the time. In this backdrop, the latest piece of information, provided by Bangladeshi scientists of the Centre for Environment and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS), would otherwise be considered a heartening one. This convincingly contradicts forecasts that a part of this country or all of it will be submerged by the rising sea from global warming a century from now. The CEGIS scientists have rather predicted a promising future for Bangladesh. According to them, new land mass of some 20 square kilometres on average has been annually accreting and adding to the coastline of the country every year. The silts brought down from the Himalayas by the numerous rivers crisscrossing this country and the same getting deposited in the shallow waters of its coastal areas, are creating the accreted lands. With this rate of accretion going on, Bangladesh may expect to get some 1,000 square kilometres of land in the next fifty years, according to the CEGIS. This area would be far bigger in size than the total lands to be lost to river erosion in this period.
Of course, there is the other side of the picture of sea-level rise from climate change as predicted by international experts on the subject. But there is still a debate among the scientists worldover over the scale of adverse effects of climate-change. As such, it is difficult to endorse, with absolute certainty or surety, some of such related projections or predictions. The sea-level rise is, however, likely to submerge a part of the country's coastal areas but not necessarily the whole of the same or the entire area of newly accreted lands of Bangladesh.
Unfortunately, nothing has been noted so far in the country's Annual Development Programmes (ADPs) to the effect that the government is paying enough attention to the important issue of natural land accretion. Hardly allocations have been made over the years to build dams and other structures to put a pace on the process of accretion of lands in the coastal areas. Besides doing something quite pro-actively to aid locally the process of land accretion and consolidation, successive governments should also have been energetic enough to seek foreign assistance to realise this objective. Already, substantial territories have surfaced in the coastal areas of Bangladesh. Some of these places have completely surfaced and have human habitations on them while others remain submerged during tides to emerge with the ebbing of the tide. The latter types of accreted lands are likely to gain in elevation to be permanently joined to the mainland. Indeed, much of present-day Bangladesh including the districts of Faridpur, Barisal, Noakhali, Patuakhali, etc., were formed in this manner over time.
Thus, lands have already emerged from the sea in the coastal areas of the country and more lands from the sea will hopefully rise in the future. But the natural process is a long one. It can be hastened. The technology for it is not so prohibitive or complex either. For Bangladesh, it involves efforts for quickening the process of accretion by establishing structures like cross dams to speed up the rate of deposition of silt in areas that have accreted or nearly accreted. The country is likely to get a generous response from the international community in matters of fund availability and technical supports if it can show that it is really keen to accrete more lands. For that matter, it has to put the endeavour under a systematic policy framework. Holland is one country which has the most experience in getting lands out of the sea. Bangladesh may not have to embark on projects on the same scale as were carried out in Holland because of its relatively better elevation. It can use its huge reservoir of cheap manpower to build simpler projects to get the same kind of results as were achieved in Holland. But for this purpose, it needs to engage in a time-bound and result-oriented framework of assistance and consultation with that country. Besides, the government of Bangladesh ought to also appeal to the international community to provide funds to it for the purpose.
Of course, there is the other side of the picture of sea-level rise from climate change as predicted by international experts on the subject. But there is still a debate among the scientists worldover over the scale of adverse effects of climate-change. As such, it is difficult to endorse, with absolute certainty or surety, some of such related projections or predictions. The sea-level rise is, however, likely to submerge a part of the country's coastal areas but not necessarily the whole of the same or the entire area of newly accreted lands of Bangladesh.
Unfortunately, nothing has been noted so far in the country's Annual Development Programmes (ADPs) to the effect that the government is paying enough attention to the important issue of natural land accretion. Hardly allocations have been made over the years to build dams and other structures to put a pace on the process of accretion of lands in the coastal areas. Besides doing something quite pro-actively to aid locally the process of land accretion and consolidation, successive governments should also have been energetic enough to seek foreign assistance to realise this objective. Already, substantial territories have surfaced in the coastal areas of Bangladesh. Some of these places have completely surfaced and have human habitations on them while others remain submerged during tides to emerge with the ebbing of the tide. The latter types of accreted lands are likely to gain in elevation to be permanently joined to the mainland. Indeed, much of present-day Bangladesh including the districts of Faridpur, Barisal, Noakhali, Patuakhali, etc., were formed in this manner over time.
Thus, lands have already emerged from the sea in the coastal areas of the country and more lands from the sea will hopefully rise in the future. But the natural process is a long one. It can be hastened. The technology for it is not so prohibitive or complex either. For Bangladesh, it involves efforts for quickening the process of accretion by establishing structures like cross dams to speed up the rate of deposition of silt in areas that have accreted or nearly accreted. The country is likely to get a generous response from the international community in matters of fund availability and technical supports if it can show that it is really keen to accrete more lands. For that matter, it has to put the endeavour under a systematic policy framework. Holland is one country which has the most experience in getting lands out of the sea. Bangladesh may not have to embark on projects on the same scale as were carried out in Holland because of its relatively better elevation. It can use its huge reservoir of cheap manpower to build simpler projects to get the same kind of results as were achieved in Holland. But for this purpose, it needs to engage in a time-bound and result-oriented framework of assistance and consultation with that country. Besides, the government of Bangladesh ought to also appeal to the international community to provide funds to it for the purpose.