The haor crisis explained
The haor is not land waiting to be conquered. It is a living floodplain. The crisis begins when its water rhythm is disrupted.
The haor lies in Bhati-Bangla — the lowland beneath the Meghalaya hills. Once, rainwater travelled through forests, rivers, beels and swamp vegetation before spreading across the basin. People knew the rhythm of Afal, the hilly torrent. Now that rhythm is being interrupted: water arrives early, stays trapped, carries sediment, and reaches fields before the harvest comes home.
*Data upto May 16, 2026.
First, understand the haor
The haor is not a normal flood zone. It is an upstream-downstream system: rain in the hills, rivers and beels in the middle, settlements on raised edges, and crop fields on land that emerges only during the dry months. District borders matter less than the movement of water.
Not the flood, but its timing
Water is not the enemy here. The haor’s economy and ecology depend on seasonal water. The danger begins when that water arrives too early or cannot leave. A few weeks decide whether water renews the wetland or ruins the year.
Water after the crop
- Season
- Usually after the main harvest, when fields begin returning to open water.
- Ecology
- Feeds fish breeding, wetland vegetation, birds and the seasonal life of the basin.
- Economy
- Supports fishing, navigation, grazing cycles, fodder and wetland fertility.
Water before the harvest
- Season
- Late March to early May, when upstream rain reaches fields before harvest and drying.
- Ecology
- Fast flow, trapped water and rotting biomass disturb fish, insects and wetland habitats.
- Economy
- Destroys Boro, spoils straw, raises labour costs, deepens debt and pushes migration.
Calendar explains the crisis
The old water rhythm worked because floods arrived after the harvest. Today, the danger lies in timing: rain reaches the fields before crops are cut, while trapped water cannot drain away.
The basin in photographs
The photographs show what tables cannot: the width of open water, the narrowness of settlement, the urgency of cutting, the difficulty of drying, and the ecological stress left behind when water arrives at the wrong time.
A timeline of flash-flood loss
The haor has always lived with water. The shock comes when flash floods arrive before the Boro harvest is cut, carried and dried. These are the years when timing became loss.
What the crop loss carries with it
The numbers do not stop at hectares. A damaged Boro crop ripples through food stocks, straw, cattle, labour markets, drying yards, wetland fisheries and next-season credit.
Why the crisis keeps returning
There is no single cause. The haor crisis sits where climate timing, upstream rainfall, blocked drainage, road-led development, lost swamp forests, fisheries pressure and one-crop dependence meet.
Understanding the crisis
What response follows
Expert Opinion
Leading water resource expert Professor Ainun Nishat breaks down how outdated institutional practices, delayed infrastructure repairs, and flawed engineering designs aggravate the haor crisis.
What would count as an effective response
An effective response must shift from controlling water to living with water: keeping the haor open, restoring ecological buffers, planning harvest timing, and supporting households after loss.
Restore hydrological connectivityBefore more construction
Water must be able to enter and leave. Roads, embankments and culverts should be assessed as part of a single basin system, not as separate projects.
- Open blocked routesMap canals, beels, road crossings and trapped-water points before approving new infrastructure.
- Stop harmful roadsPrioritise elevated and permeable designs where transport links are essential.
Protect swamp forests and kandaEcological infrastructure
Hijol-koroch forests, reed beds, village tree belts and raised kanda once slowed current, softened waves and sheltered biodiversity.
- Restore jalabonProtect remaining swamp forests and rebuild vegetation belts around villages and water routes.
- Stop cutting high groundDo not sacrifice kanda and raised jangal land for short-term embankment soil.
Make harvest protection practicalCut, carry, dry
Saving paddy means more than keeping water away. Farmers need enough time, machines, labour routes and raised drying spaces.
- Finish earlyShort-duration rice, timely seeds, flood forecasts, and adequate harvesters are needed to complete harvesting before floods arrive
- Dry safelyBuild raised drying yards and deploy dryers before paddy sprouts or blackens.
Plan for straw, cattle and fishBeyond crop loss
Rotten straw, fodder shortage, fish death and sand-covered grazing land can deepen the crisis after the field is already lost.
- Secure fodderCreate emergency straw, feed and veterinary support for cattle and buffalo-owning households.
- Monitor water qualityTrack dissolved oxygen, rotting biomass and fish deaths after early flood events.
Manage water with local knowledgeAccountability
Farmers know where water enters, where it should leave and which embankment cuts save a field. Ignoring that knowledge turns infrastructure into conflict.
- Use community timingDecide where to cut, close and repair with people who cultivate the beels.
- Assign responsibilityEvery gate, culvert, embankment and cut point needs an accountable operator.
Make recovery structuralDebt and livelihood
The crisis does not end when water recedes. It continues through debt, distress sale, migration, input costs and next-season uncertainty.
- Restructure creditEase repayment pressure and extend low-interest recovery credit to cultivators, tenants, and labourers.
- Protect commonsReform fisheries access so poor households can use wetlands for food and income security.
More from the basin
Further scenes from the haor, illustrating the fragile balance between agrarian life and wetland ecology.
Read more
Explore the Daily Star stories that deepen the haor crisis: its management failures, ecological losses, infrastructure choices, and the futures now at stake.
Haor crisis is fundamentally a management failure: Aninun Nishat
“The severe impact fundamentally stems from management failures rather than nature alone,” says Ainun Nishat, pointing to delayed embankment repairs, flawed sluice gates, and climate-blind agricultural policies that are turning Bangladesh’s haor crisis into a recurring catastrophe.
Read more →‘Development’ tragedy in haor: Ami jamu hourbari pakka rasta chai
A farmer’s simple wish for a paved road has evolved into a devastating lesson about unplanned infrastructure, where embankments and roads now interrupt the natural flow of water across the haor.
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Haor crisis turning into a national crisis: Is the government aware?
Bangladesh’s haor region produces nearly one-fifth of the country’s rice. After devastating waterlogging damaged Boro paddy, the crisis threatens to spill from the wetlands into national food security.
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The slow death of the haors and their swamp forests
In the language of the haor, floodwaters were once described as a returning “naiori.” Today, that relationship between water, forest, and people has broken down.
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Haor farmers are dying, why does no one care?
Every year, haor farmers lose crops to floods, risk death from lightning while harvesting, and are then forced to sell surviving paddy at distress prices.
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Can sluice gates fix the haor waterlogging crisis?
For decades, haor embankments were built to keep water out. Recent disasters reveal the opposite problem: water enters, yet cannot escape.
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Shifting lives in the haor: A wetland losing its farmers
Farmers who once survived through cultivation are abandoning the fields for tourism, transport, and seasonal migration as the wetland economy unravels.
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