‘Water in Hakaluki haor becomes normal’

Fishermen can catch fish in Hakaluki haor in Moulvibazar soon as its water became normal today, said Moulvibazar District Fisheries Officer AKM Shafiquzzaman.

“We spread lime in the contaminated water since April 16 when the dead fishes were found floating in Hakaluki haor,” he said while briefing reporters at his office this afternoon.

“Around 25 metric tonnes fishes died in the haor in the last couple of days,” he said adding, “We will produce 18 lakh spawns of fishes and will release them soon.”

The deaths of fish, frogs and fowls in their hundreds as an aftermath of such floods in Sylhet region caused by the late March onrush of upstream hill waters are a new phenomenon altogether.

The hilly water and excessive rains submerged a vast tract of backswamp in Sunamganj and a few other northeastern haor zones.

The flash floods submerged the wetland of Sylhet, Sunamganj, Habiganj, Netrokona, Kishoreganj, Brahmanbaria and Moulvibazar.

And an outcry across the border over India's exposing open pits of uranium to a river system causing deaths of fish has made experts in Bangladesh concerned about a likely link.