Riverbeds brought under crop farming in Rangpur
Saturday, 14 March 2009
RANGPUR, March 13 (BSS): Hundreds of people have brought a vast tract of dried up riverbeds of the Brahmaputra, Teesta and their tributaries during this season in all five districts of greater Rangpur, char people and officials said Friday.
They said, it has become possible due to abnormal silting up of the riverbeds, drying up of all of the major rivers and all their tributaries, appearance of hundreds of shoals with the disappearance of water flows in these rivers.
Different varieties of crops like maize, Boro, groundnut, 'china', 'kawn', pulses, mustard, 'gunji till', wheat, tobacco, vegetables, watermelon and many other crops have been cultivated on these vast tracts of the dried up riverbeds in greater Rangpur this year.
The river-eroded landless farmers, who cultivated crops in the riverbeds, said they are facing irrigation water problem as the tributaries have been dried up totally and very little water flows are there in some narrower channels in the Brahmaputra and the Teesta only.
They are using shallow tube wells for irrigating their crop fields and facing hurdles in reaching their crop fields in the remote char areas as navigation has remained almost inoperative for the past few months in the dried up rivers, they said.
Officials said, the biggest irrigation project of the country, Teesta Barrage Project (TBP) at Dalia of Nilphamari district, is now facing acute water problems as the Teesta has dried up due to the reasons and unilateral withdrawal of its water in the upstream.
We are facing the worst ever situation this year as there is almost no water flow in the river now due to the reasons and it has also adversely affected environment, ecology and biodiversity in the basin, they said.
Boro farming in the command area of the TBP is threatened this season as the farmers are getting very little water from its canals and many of them are cultivating crops on the dried up beds of the Teesta with no navigability.
At least 10,000 cusecs water flow is required to provide irrigation to even only 60,000 hectares in the present command area though we are getting now the lowest ever flow of 400 to 800 cusecs, executive engineer of WDB Atiqur Rahman told BSS today.
On the other hand, the Brahmaputra has now the lowest ever water flow in some narrower channels that caused appearance of hundreds of shoals on its beds hampering navigability that enables the farmers farming crops on its beds throughout the courses.
They said, it has become possible due to abnormal silting up of the riverbeds, drying up of all of the major rivers and all their tributaries, appearance of hundreds of shoals with the disappearance of water flows in these rivers.
Different varieties of crops like maize, Boro, groundnut, 'china', 'kawn', pulses, mustard, 'gunji till', wheat, tobacco, vegetables, watermelon and many other crops have been cultivated on these vast tracts of the dried up riverbeds in greater Rangpur this year.
The river-eroded landless farmers, who cultivated crops in the riverbeds, said they are facing irrigation water problem as the tributaries have been dried up totally and very little water flows are there in some narrower channels in the Brahmaputra and the Teesta only.
They are using shallow tube wells for irrigating their crop fields and facing hurdles in reaching their crop fields in the remote char areas as navigation has remained almost inoperative for the past few months in the dried up rivers, they said.
Officials said, the biggest irrigation project of the country, Teesta Barrage Project (TBP) at Dalia of Nilphamari district, is now facing acute water problems as the Teesta has dried up due to the reasons and unilateral withdrawal of its water in the upstream.
We are facing the worst ever situation this year as there is almost no water flow in the river now due to the reasons and it has also adversely affected environment, ecology and biodiversity in the basin, they said.
Boro farming in the command area of the TBP is threatened this season as the farmers are getting very little water from its canals and many of them are cultivating crops on the dried up beds of the Teesta with no navigability.
At least 10,000 cusecs water flow is required to provide irrigation to even only 60,000 hectares in the present command area though we are getting now the lowest ever flow of 400 to 800 cusecs, executive engineer of WDB Atiqur Rahman told BSS today.
On the other hand, the Brahmaputra has now the lowest ever water flow in some narrower channels that caused appearance of hundreds of shoals on its beds hampering navigability that enables the farmers farming crops on its beds throughout the courses.