JASHORE: Water Resources, Environment and Climate Change Affairs Adviser Syeda Rizwana Hasan today visited submerged Bhabodah in the district and exchanged views with locals. She said her government will take necessary steps for immediate and permanent solution of the water logging problem. The adviser also assured of adequate relief materials for the submerged people. The adviser along with water resources secretary Md Nazmul Ahsan and senior officials of the Water Development Board (WDB) reached Amdanga Khal at about 11am. According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, they witnessed the present condition of the cannel and told local people that the cannel would be re-excavated soon to pass the stagnant water to the Bhairab River through this cannel. Leaders of different political parties and groups working with the problem raised allegations of corruption against the concerned government agencies, especially the WDB, in implementing the projects during the last few decades. The adviser later went to the Sunda li Bazar of the upazila where several hundred affected people including women and children and students of different schools and colleges gathered earlier. Local leaders and housewives narrated their decades-long sufferings and inhuman livelihood to the adviser and sought her wholehearted cooperation to solve the problem. The students, especially the students of Sundali Girls High School, described their sufferings in running their educational curriculum in their submerged classrooms. On hearing the statements of the affected people, Syeda Rizwana Hasan told that she will talk to the highest level of the government regarding the issue and will take urgent and long-term steps to solve the water logging problems of Bhabodah. Later, the advisor went to the Bhabodah sluice gates area and inspected the dredging activities in the up and down stream of the Hari and Teka rivers. She also saw the activities of the pump machines set up by the WDB to pump out the stagnant water to downstream rivers. The government wil l take pragmatic measures for the immediate and permanent solutions of the problem after taking the opinion of the local people, she said, adding that special committees would be formed comprising the representatives of the students and local people in this regard. Over 500 villages in four upazilas of Jashore have been marooned due to the water logging as households of over nine lakh people are under water. Over 75,000 hectares of agricultural land, thousands of fish enclosures, several hundred educational institutions and pucca, semi-pucca, and kancha roads are being damaged badly due to the water logging. Director General (DG) of the WDB Amirul Haque Bhuiyan, chief advisor of Bhabodah Pani Niskashan Sangram Committee Iqbal Kabir Zahid, president of the committee Ranojit Kumar Bawali, president of Dhaka based Manirampur Samity Engineer Iqbal Kabir and former principal of Bhabodah Degree College Abdul Motalem Sardar, among others, were accompanied with the adviser.
