Illegal sand extraction from the river Padma has made the Faridpur town protection embankment vulnerable, much to the worry of local residents. A group of local influential people having political clout are lifting sand illegally from the mighty river near the town embankment at Paldadangi adjacent to Dholar Mor in Dicrirchar union of Sadar upazila, according to media reports.
Sand extracted from the river is being loaded into trucks along a vast area on the west side of Dholar Mor up to Baliadangi. Around 400 to 500 trucks heavily loaded with the extracted sand are plying the embankment every day making the infrastructure rickety. The embankment constructed at a cost of Tk 194 crore is now on the way to getting largely damaged.
People living across the Padma river bank are in fear that the embankment may collapse any moment. Unabated illegal sand extraction from the riverbeds and banks has posed a serious erosion threat to vast tract of cropland, adjacent villages, houses and different establishments along the rivers in the country. Illegal and unplanned sand extraction in some strategic points of some important rivers has also reduced the production of hilsa and other fishes.
People living across the Padma
river bank are in fear that the
embankment may collapse any moment
Besides, the illegal and unplanned sand extraction is also posing a threat to roads and highways, bridges, and other important structures in the country. The high command of the government several times ordered the suspension of sand lifting and asked four ministries to prepare a policy guideline in this regard to protect the croplands, homestead, important establishments, century old haat and bazars, bridges, national highways and roads from illegal lifting of sand from rivers.
The authorities also issued warning against sand extraction but political interference is always patronising the organised local influential and hoodlums to do the crime.
Local influential people and hoodlums in their respective areas are running a rampant sand lifting business right under the nose of the administration, which shows no sign of taking any action against them.
Most of the sand traders use mechanised dredgers and dredge the river beds in an unplanned way. This aggravates erosion and causes flood in the rainy season. They are reported to dredge river beds even up to 100 metres or more. These holes obstruct the natural water flow during rainy season, causing rivers to realign their banks and threaten embankments, cropland and homesteads.
This is not acceptable in any way and those who are involved in such illegal activities are the enemies of the nation. They must be punished sooner than later.
