Tangail embankment under threat

The Tangail town protection embankment is under threat due to indiscriminate soil lifting from the Poulee river, a branch of the Jamuna.

Influential traders, most of them locals, have been extracting soil with excavators at several points near the embankment and transporting it using hundreds of trucks, including ten-wheeled heavy dump trucks, along the town protection dam, alleged locals.

Locals said the practice only halts temporarily when the local administration launches mobile court drives against the perpetrators, but resumes within a few days.

According to the Water Development Board (WDB), the Tangail Town Protection Embankment, also known as the Silimpur-Karatia Embankment, was constructed under the Compartmentalisation Pilot Project at a cost of Tk 120 crore in 2000.

Villagers said the embankment, along with the riverside villages, is now facing a serious erosion threat as the earth traders continue using the structure as a road for transporting earth in large trucks.

They said that frequent movement of these trucks on the earth-filled embankment is also causing severe dust pollution, leading to respiratory problems among many residents of nearby villages.

The villagers, however, said they do not dare protest the illegal activity as the syndicate is powerful and many of its members have political backing.

They also reported that several small and large cracks had developed in different parts of the embankment, which were repaired a couple of years ago.

None of the alleged earth traders could be reached for comment.

Asked about the matter, Matiur Rahman, executive engineer of the WDB in Tangail, said they had not granted permission to anyone for extracting soil from the river or for movement of trucks on the embankment.

He said WDB officials had participated in several drives carried out by the local administration against the illegal activities.

Contacted, Mad Khairul Islam, upazila nirbahi officer in Kalihati, said to avoid daytime raids, the earth traders have changed tactics and now operate mostly at night.

"However, we are conducting raids at night as well," he said.

"The assistant commissioner (land) in Kalihati also conducted a drive recently and fined an earth trader Tk 2 lakh and seized an earth-carrying truck. Such drives will continue," he added.