Sixteen rivers, big and small, flow through the northern district of Kurigram. In its basin, there are more than four hundred chars and island chars. The name of one such char is Jadur Char.
This char is slowly swallowing the Jinjiram and Dharani rivers coming down from India. Nearly three hundred houses, crop lands, markets, educational institutions and religious establishments have already been destroyed by erosion due to the landslides of the two rivers.
The families affected by the erosion are angry at the Water Development Board’s culpable acts in the floods that occurred during the dry season. Therefore, the people here want a permanent solution, not culpable acts. When we went to the villages of Namapara, Dublabari, Lalkura and Bakbandha in Jadur Char Union, which borders India in Roumari Upazila of the district, we saw the pitiful picture of the lives of hundreds of people who were victims of erosion. These families are now destitute after losing their ancestral homes in the river valley due to the landslides of the Jinjiram and Dharani rivers coming down from India. Some have lost everything and migrated to Dhaka. Locals complain that they have been applying to the BWDB authorities for years but have not received any relief during the erosion period. In the current flood season, the locals applied to RDRS Bangladesh’s Trosa-2 and Oxfam project authorities, and with their help, 27 temporary bamboo bundles were built in an area of ​​600 meters in that area, and a part of Bakbandha village was temporarily saved. However, over the years, due to the indifference of the BWDB, more than three hundred houses, mosques, graveyards, Bakbandha Multipurpose High School, Bakbandha Primary School and community centers and markets have been destroyed. These institutions have now been relocated.
To address this crisis, the local people, with the help of RDRS Bangladesh’s TROSA-2 project and Oxfam Bangladesh, took the initiative to conserve the riverbanks. Through several “river meetings”, on the advice of local leaders and experts, TROSA organized skill exchange workshops with the help of the first-stage experienced community. As a result, 27 bamboo bundles, about 600 meters long, were constructed by February 2025. These bundles help to significantly reduce the impact of early floods and slope erosion by diverting the river flow to the middle. In July this year, the Kurigram Water Development Board took the initiative to lay geo bags. As part of this, the authorities allocated a nominal amount of Tk 29 lakh to temporarily prevent erosion. The work was done by MC Enterprises in Rangpur. Guru Mia, a sixty-year-old from Bakbandha village, expressed his anger and said, “During the last flood, two of our houses and one bigha of cropland were washed away by the Jinjiram hill slope. The Water Development Board is not keeping track of anything. With the help of RDRS, half of the land has been saved by using bundals. We need a permanent solution.” Mennaz Ali (50) from Lalkura village said, “It would have been much better if the bundals had been placed upstream. This would have reduced the intensity of erosion. Although bundals are a temporary solution, the risk of erosion remains in the upcoming flood.” Sajedur Rahman Sabuj, a BSc teacher at Bakbandha Bahumukhi High School in Jadur Union, said, “Even though the river breaks every year, the authorities remain silent. The people here are disoriented by the flow of the Jinjiram-Dharani river in India. Although the local RDRS’s Trosa-2 and Oxfam project have constructed the bund, BWDB has only laid a few geo bags. Which is not enough.” When asked about this, Kurigram Water Development Board Executive Engineer Rakibul Islam said, “We have laid geo bags in Bakbandha. There is no plan to permanently lay CC blocks there. Since the LGED road is located near the Jinjiram river, they are working permanently.”