RAJSHAHI, June 27, 2018 (BSS)- Farmers were gradually becoming habituated
to irrigating their cropping fields with canal water side by side with deep
tube-wells in Barind area for the last couple of years.
“We are getting water for irrigating our croplands round the year from
Sharmangla canal in Godagari upazila of the district,” said Aminul Islam, a
farmer of a nearby village.
He is now happy with canal water based irrigation in the current Aush
transplantation season.
Nazrul Islam, 45, another farmer of Rajabari village, said canal water
contains humus which is important for soil fertility as well as boosting crop
yield.
“We are so much happy with getting chances of irrigation using surface
water round the year,” he added.
Like them, canal water irrigation has made thousands of farmers happy in
the high Barind area as their dependence on deep tube wells and rainfall has
been reduced to some extent.
“In phases, we are re-excavating more than 38.85-kilomter derelict canals
and constructing 16 submerged wares for creating surface water reservoir,”
said Shamsul Huda, Superintending Engineer of Barind Multipurpose Development
Authority (BMDA).
Process of commissioning of around 1.23 lakh meters underground upvc
pipelines is progressing fast to enhance the irrigation efficiency. At least
96 power-driven low lift pumps were set up for using the conserved water in
the re-excavated canals for irrigation purposes.
Highlighting salient features of the project, Engineer Huda said BMDA has
been implementing the canal water improvement scheme aims at lessening the
gradually mounting pressure on groundwater for irrigation purposes.
The three-year project titled “Extension of Irrigation in Barind Area
through Conservation of Water in Canal” is being implemented in eight
upazilas of Rajshahi, Naogaon and Chapainawabganj districts at a cost of
around Taka 116.13 crore.
The state-owned derelict canals are being re-excavated to increase the
number of reservoirs for drawing rain waters and using it for various
purposes, especially for irrigation and that is very important for the region
in terms of water-stress condition.
The work on establishing requisite number of pumps, pontoons and pipelines
in different points of Padma, Mohananda and Atrai rivers is going on for
transferring the river-water to the canals and further to the farming fields.
Ten 10 solar panels were installed to operate the pumps for irrigation.
Project Director Huda told BSS that increasing the capacity of surface
water in dry area has become essential to reduce dependency on the ground
water.
Adverse impacts of climate change have been posing a serious threat to the
overall public health especially relating to water and sanitation in the
region, he added.
Stressing the need for an environment-friendly irrigation system instead of
indiscriminate use of groundwater resources for irrigation purposes, he said
there is no alternative but to include the Barind area in any climate
resilient fund.
Engineer Huda said there are huge ponds and canals in Barind area
comprising 25 upazilas of the aforesaid three districts and if those were re-
excavated properly all the farming lands could be brought under irrigation
with the conserved water round the year.
Re-excavation of all the existing derelict ponds and canals has become
indispensable to enrich the surface water resources in the high Barind tract
of the region to make its farming system protected.
In this regard, he said, the retained water could easily be used for
supplementary irrigation of Aman paddy, wheat, pulse, oil seeds and
vegetables cultivation along with pisciculture and duck farming.
Transplantation of around 80,000 saplings of fruit, forest and herbal trees
on both sides of the canals was almost completed that will ultimately help
reduce carbon emission at a substantial level. It is very important to face
the adverse impacts of climate change in the vast Barind tract.
The scheme has started creating employment opportunities for the day
labourers and marginal farmers in agriculture and living and livelihood
condition of the farmers’ community is likely to the improved through crop
production.
On successful completion of the project by this yearend, it will help to
produce about 37,800 tonnes of food through providing irrigation to 3,780
hectares of land from the conserved water sources annually, he added.
It will be possible to produce 4,000 tonnes of fish worth Tk 90 million and
rearing of 50 million ducks annually. As a whole, the scheme will facilitate
boosting round the year surface water uses for irrigation purposes.
Engineer Huda said, it would also help improve environment there, a common
concern of the area.