Amreto Sorkar from Rajshahi
Humans share an intricate relationship with river. They cannot imagine their existence without river and its water. In fact, river and wetlands are the natural resources which enrich and strengthen the journey of humans towards building the civilized world. River is a blessing for humans and other life forms on the earth. No matter how broken the river is, it remains a sacred and emotional place for the settlements and people on the banks of the river.
Rivers are very important for a country, and equally important for a region. However, the Barind Tract of Bangladesh is extremely drought and water-stressed region. People face immense scarcity of water during the dry season. There is water shortage of water for agriculture production as well. Women have to fetch water from a long distance and these happen due to either contamination of the water of Rivers or dying of existing Rivers. There is a festival of killing rivers, canals and creeks in the region by polluting them, filling them up by the influential. Because of this many small and big rivers have almost died or are in the edge of dying. River’s biodiversity is also under threat today due to city dumping, excessive poisoning of riverside lands. Many indigenous species of fish, birds, snakes, frogs have become extinct. Many more species are on the verge of extinction today.
The only river in the Barind region (Rajshahi) is Shiv River. Due to the damming of the source of this river and pollution of the river, the river has turned into a drain today. Now there is no water in Shiv River all year round. A variety of fish is not available due to this river is dying. The Atrai, Mahananda, Barnai, Padma, Purnabhava, Joakhali, Narada, Baral, Nandkuja Rivers are not in their natural state today. Thus, in order to protect these rivers and wetlands the people of the area have been demonstrating and implement different activities to persuade the state taking action to revive those rivers.
Therefore, the local communities arranged River Solidarity near the bank of Shiv River where all the rivers of the region (symbolically) converged on the banks of the Shiv River to present their problems. Personified rivers presented their problems to everyone through placards. In this exceptional initiative, BARCIK was accompanied by the members of Swapnachari Youth Organization of Gokul-Mothura village of Tanor Upazila of Rajshahi. In this regard, the president of the organization Md. Rubel Hossain Mintu (36) said, ‘Shiv River has flowed past our village. Today the river is dying due to various reasons. So we have organized this “River Solidarity” to present the names and problems of all the rivers in Barind region. Which will make people of all levels aware.”
There is no alternative to protect the rivers of the region to solve the water problem of Barind region. Mr. Barendranath Sutradhar (84) of Gokul-Mothura village participated in the river solidarity program. He said, “Once upon a time, big boats used to sail through our Shiv River, there were colored sailing boats. We caught many species of fishes as well. Today there are none of these. If the river is dug, there will be water here all year round. We want the state authorities taking action to excavate the Shiv River along with other canals and wetlands.”
It is substantial that a sound plan is needed to protect the Rivers of Barind region solve crisis of water and restore the lost river’s biodiversity. Besides, everyone needs to be aware to protect the river from pollution.
Translated by Silvanus Lamin
