The rivers of the district are facing threat of their existence as most of the rivers has lost their flowing and navigation, reports BSS. Once there were boats, launches and steamers in the rivers carrying goods and passengers from one district to another. Now it has become as dream. Continuous dumping of garbage, waste of local industries and absence of dredging operation, the bed of the rivers filled silt and rising up day by day.
Besides, a group of land grabbers occupied the wet beds of the rivers built unauthorized structures in the rivers. Once the mighty river old Brahmaputra in Sadar upazila, Haridoa river at Sadar and Shibpur upazilas, Arialkha river at Raipura and Belabo upazilas, Sitalakkha at Polash upazila were the busy rivers.
Now the rivers has lost their existence, movements of boats and launches are totally stop in old Brahmaputra, Haridoa and Arialkha rivers. The rivers has lost their fishing resources due to insufficient water flow.
Some 100 dyeing factories and textile industries set up over the river bank of Old Brahmaputra in Sadar upazila and Sitalakkha at Polash upazila and spilling untreated toxic and chemical contaminated water into the rivers destroying its eco-system.
During a visit to bank of the rivers the BSS correspondent found that a number of dyeing, printing and textile industries and other factories have been built by grabbing the river and factories are discharging highly toxic water in the rivers.
Farmers of the areas alleged that their agriculture is being affected since the dyeing factories and industries are continuously spewing toxic industrial wastes into agricultural lands and water bodies.
They said the water of the rivers has turned poisonous. Local alleged that although it is mandatory to set up an Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) in every factory before going to its operation as per the rules of the Department of Environment, most of the factories are not following the rules.
They opined that government can still save the rivers stopping the factory waste and chemical mixed water in the rivers and by recovering the occupied lands of the rivers from land grabbers and by massive dredging operation.