Houses for homeless: A project destined to fall into ruin

At least a dozen homes built for the homeless and landless on a river island in Bogura's Sariakandi upazila have been devoured by the Jamuna while dozens of others are under threat of being lost.

The residents blame the authorities for their poor choice of place, saying that the local administration and public representatives selected the location despite knowing that no river island, called char in Bangla, lasts more than a few years in the region.

The 69 semi-pucca cluster homes on Biramer Pachangachi Char were built along with more than 300 others in the upazila under the Ashrayan-2 project for the homeless and landless in fiscal 2021-22.

The project was part of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's birth centenary celebrations. The aim was to rehabilitate the landless and homeless people also by providing them with solar panels, water pumps, schools, and other modern facilities.

Upazila Project Implementation Officer Tariful Islam told The Daily Star that 65 houses were constructed on the char in the first phase of the project, with the construction cost of each semi-brick building at Tk 1.71 lakh.

After this, in the fourth phase, four more houses were built with the construction cost of each home at Tk 2.90 lakh.

An NGO built another 10 tin-roofed houses with concrete basements on the char at an estimated construction cost of Tk 15-20 lakh in total following the government project.

In the last month, 10 homesteads under the Ashrayan project on the river island were lost in the river because of erosion.

The residents demolished another 39 houses and removed the bricks, roofs, and other materials.

Those living in the remaining 30 houses are now seeking to shift to safe places.

Jahanara Begum, 60, a beneficiary of the project, said she had never lived in a brick house before and got the semi-pucca home two years ago.

"But as the river bank is eroding sharply, this house is no longer useful. Now I don't want this kind of brick house any more. If possible, the government should build a tin-roofed house in another safer place," she said.

Sajeda Begum, 40, said they were very happy to get the house two years ago. "We had cropland around the village. We started a happy life there. The river was about two kilometres away from the house. But in the last year, all the croplands have gone into the river. Now the houses given by the government are also going."

Anecha Begum, 65, has been living in a house of the project for a year after the original resident abandoned it out of fear of river erosion.

"We have to leave this char again and take shelter in another char, as the river erosion is taking a dangerous turn," she said.

The residents alleged that the local administration implemented the project under pressure from Shawkat Ali, the former chairman of Chaluabari Union Parishad.

Shawkat went into hiding after the fall of the Awami League government while officials of the local administration were transferred. 

When asked why government shelter project houses were built in a disaster-prone area like a char, Shahriar Rahman, acting upazila nirbahi officer of Sariakandi  and assistant commissioner (land), also blamed Shawkat for choosing the char for the project.

Shawkat was a member of the project implementation committee.

"Besides, the residents of the char also demanded that project for them there," said Shahriar.

Nazmul Haque, executive engineer of the Water Development Board in Bogura, told this correspondent that they always advise the district administration not to construct any paved or semi-paved infrastructure in the char areas.

"But still, these infrastructures were built on the char. However, we shall visit the area and try to find out what to do," he added.

The residents said no measure to stop the erosion will be sustainable since the current directly hits the char.

When asked what efforts will be taken to rehabilitate the families affected by the erosion, acting UNO Shahriar said, "We have spoken to the higher authorities about these families. Now, we intend to rehabilitate these families as per their needs elsewhere according to the government allocation."