By Syed Altefat Hossain

RANGABALI, Patuakhali, Apr 1, 2022 (BSS) – As the sun sets on the small islands of Rangabali, riverine-island dwellers see the lessening of burden and stresses as they are now blessed with the glow of electrification.

Access to electricity has enabled once poor Alamgir selling various products including frozen items, indicative of the fact that people living in these large sandbars are able to get rid of livelihood vulnerability.

An electric fan was moving over his head at a shop in front of the island upazila as he was seen busy with selling various products like cold water and soft drinks to the customers, which needed refrigerators that was once a day dream for him.

But the government’s efforts of bringing the whole country under 100 percent electricity coverage, marking the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, has made it possible by reaching out the power here, around 22 kilometers away from the nearest mainland-  Kalapara upazila.

Chars are known for their multiple natural hazards and social vulnerabilities. Being able to get illuminated at night removing darkness is still a novelty for struggling people of this largely rural and sparsely populated island upazila.

Electrification has paved the way for these people to better understand and navigate complexity and uncertainty that has gripped them in many fields.

 It has enabled them to reduce the impact of shocks and stresses, and increased the capacity to absorb, adapt to, and rapidly recover from such shocks.

Electricity becomes one of the most important forces driving islanders to remove poverty and children to study long after the sun goes down, setting an energy example for all.

 
“Our affectionate Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has done an impossible task by reaching the electricity to our islands crossing the mighty Tetulia River. We are grateful to her,” Alamgir Hossain, the shopkeeper, told BSS.

The 100 percent people (about 1.20 lakh) of the upazila have come under the facility by November 2021, thanks to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s one of the special initiatives- ‘Ghotre Ghore Bidyut’.

Alamgir said, “One year ago, darkness used to overshadow us just as with the sun sets, but now we are illuminated with the electricity round the clock.”

This power facility is bringing back the people, who travelled to Dhaka for works years ago, and helping them start new businesses like electric products’ shops and establishing different factories, he said.

A showroom of electric products was seen at Slowiz Bazar in Char Mantaz on the bank of the mighty Bura Gouranga River near the basin of the Bay of Bengal, around 11.7 kilometers away from Rangabali and 29 kilometers from the nearest mainland upazila Golachipa.

Aiub Khan, the showroom owner and permanent resident of Char Mantaz where around 45,000 people live, said he launched the electric products’ showroom six months back soon after the electricity reached there.

“Most of the people come here to buy refrigerators, fans, televisions, mobile phones and iron machines while demand for refrigerators and fans is very high,” he said.
Noting that the hospital, the union parishad, a high school and two primary schools in the Char Mantaz have been facilitated with the internet connection using the Bangabandhu Satellite-1, he said, students of chars are now enjoying the online classes.
The electricity has also helped improve telecom operators’ network system in the char areas, Aiub said, adding, though the urban facilities in the chars are now reality, the people used to ridicule the initiative of reaching electricity here.

“When officials were mapping for setting up electricity transmission lines under the riverbed, the people termed them as mad and manipulators.

 They used to say that the government was joking with them in the name of giving electricity to such a coastal island,” he added.

 
The electricity is now encouraging the people setting up rice-mills and sawmills here, which was beyond the imagination before the electricity facility, he said.

“Getting electricity was a day dream for us. But the government has made it a reality within an unimaginable short time,” Aiub said.

According to the upazila REB office, all the 25,358 families of 104 villages in six unions (each an island) here have come under the 100 percent electricity coverage within 14 months from September 30, 2020 to November 30, 2021.

During the period, the government established 26 kilometer-long 33kv overhead transmission line, 5.8-kilometer-long 33kv submarine cable under the Tetulia and Kajal/Bura Gauranga riverbeds, a 10MVA power substation, 1,241 kilometer-long 11KV line and 5.38 kilometer-long 11 KV submarine cable under the Galachipa and Tetulia river beds at a cost of Taka 260 crore.

Like Rangabali, all islands in the country, including Sonarampur, Ashuganj, Rangabali, Monpura, Sandwip, Hatia, Nijhum Island and Kutubdia, have been illuminated with the electricity, making the country the first nation in South Asia to get 100 percent electricity.

Rangabali Upazila Nirbahi Officers (UNO) Md Mashfakur Rahman said the electricity is boosting the local economy in the char areas, creating new scopes for employment.

It is playing a vital role in boosting the production of agricultural goods, he said, adding that Rangabali upazila approximately produced watermelon worth Taka 500 crore last year, which was possible due to the irrigation with groundwater using the electricity.