Chalan Beel, the largest water reservoir in the country, is declining to the extent that it will possibly dry up once. It has already lost its flow and capacity of holding water, leaving only a few patches of water in its central areas especially in the winter season. The biodiversity of Chalan Beel is facing continuous threat of extinction due to unplanned development projects blocking water flow, grabbing of beel lands, pollution by factories and indiscriminate digging of ponds.
Over 50 lakh people of 13 upazilas under four districts -- Natore, Pabna, Sirajganj and Naogaon, live surrounding the beel that constituted of 150 small beels, 23 rivers, 350 canals, 20,000 government and one lakh private ponds flow with river water channeled through Boral river, according to media report. But the unplanned sluice gates and water regulators, 2,005 culverts, 150 bridges, a rubber dam, 150 brick kilns, releasing of untreated liquid from factories, and navigation crisis of rivers are destroying the biodiversity of Chalan Beel.
The government should
pay heed to the experts
and environmentalists’ suggestions
Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) has been implementing a five-year project on Pabna-Natore-Sirajganj district irrigation development through surface water of Chalan Beel to yield the additional crops. The project is being implemented in 25 upazilas of the three districts at a cost of around Taka 560.53 crore since July 2019 last. The BADC also hopes to produce around 1.34 lakh tonnes additional crops from 53,400 hectares of Chalan beel land every year using surface water irrigation.
Various infrastructures development works including canal and solar-power driven dug-well re-excavation, irrigation infrastructure and underground canal construction are going on under the project. Upon successful implementation by June, 2024, the project will facilitate boosting crop production, help improve the environment and establish a modern and sustainable irrigation management system.
Experts and environmentalists are always calling upon the government and authorities concerned to declare Chalan Beel an ‘environmentally critical area’ and form a separate and independent body to take up planned development projects giving priority to the environmental issues. Therefore, the government should pay heed to the experts and environmentalists’ suggestions.
The water flow of all the canals connecting multiple rivers with the Chalan Beel will have to be ensured during dry season. In this regard, the aforementioned project should be implemented carefully without disturbing the natural balance and maintaining ecological balance.
