More often than not, structures built by Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) harm the people than benefit them. Another example of this general phenomenon is provided by seven sluice gates that BWDB built to regulate the flow between the Madhumati River and its khals that served as conduits for river water to spread over Madaripur and Gopalganj districts and also bring water from these areas back to the river.
As the picture in the news item above shows, the width of the sluice gates is invariably much less that the natural width of the canals. As a result, these they become bottlenecks to free passage of water. Poor management of the sluice gates add to the problem.
Finally, there is the problem of siltation and loss of flow in the main river, in particular due to upstream diversion by Farakka. As a result of all of the above, all the seven sluice gates have now become dysfunctional, shutting off the passage for the river flow to into the floodplains through these khals. As a result, people of the entire region are suffering because of lack of water for agriculture and as well as for household use. No relief will be in sight until the BWDB takes up new project to remove the sluice gates and dredge the openings of the khals into the river.
It is to avoid unfortunate consequences as above that BEN and BAPA advocate for the Open approach to rivers so that all the khals and floodplains remain open to the river. The experience also shows the importance of having village-level local government institutions, such as “village councils,” with jurisdictions over local water bodies, including any structures that are built on them. With such village councils in place, harmful sluices would not have been built in the first place, and second, even if built, these would have been better maintained, and finally when they needed to be removed, the village councils could have acted more promptly than to wait for BWDB to get their proposed project approved, funded, and ultimately implemented. We hope that the government will pay more attention to the recommendations made by the BAPA, BEN, and ensure that the new institution has jurisdiction on the water development structures built in the area. – Source – BEN Newsletter
