Someswari River no longer exists as a river: Syeda Rizwana Hasan
Syeda Rizwana Hasan, chief executive of the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA), said, “The Someshwari river was killed by leasing Balumhal.”
Netrakona’s Someswari no longer exists as a river. The river is being converted into a sandbar—hundreds of dredgers on the river bed. These illegal dredgers are lifting sand.
On September 23, 2023, he said these things after visiting various Balumhals of Someswari river.
Syeda Rizwana Hasan said, “When I came to Durgapur to see the Someshwari river, I did not see any river.” I just saw a weak stream. And everywhere, I saw sand lifting with dredgers. On the way from Mymensingh, I gave only trucks and trucks filled with sand.
On the Shyamganj-Birishiri road, signboards are saying that overloaded trucks will not run and wet sand trucks will not run. But all the trucks I saw were overloaded and filled with damp sand.
Syeda Rizwana Hasan also said that since a lot of sand is coming here, along with river management, some sand may also need to be lifted. But if the private sector extracts the sand by declaring it as Balumhal, this river will never be returned as a river.
“They will use it as a sand mine. Therefore, excavation work can be done by planning at the government level to maintain the depth of this river. But in no way can this river be declared as Balumhal and released to the private sector,” she continued.
Local people say that the sand of the Someshwari River in Durgapur is now the biggest cause of their sorrow. Sand is being extracted from the river by machines day and night without paying attention to the rules. Various organizations have debated this issue for a long time, but it is not working.
Durgapur Upazila Executive Officer (UNO) Mohammad Rajeev-ul Ahsan said, “The Upazila administration sometimes conducts mobile courts and fines dredgers and wet sand-filled truck-lorries.
Apart from this, several recent decisions are being implemented, including stopping the movement of sand trucks through the municipal city, not blowing the horn, not transporting wet sand, and cleaning the sand lying on the road.”
