Access to water in Kopilmuni area
A people’s movement
When illegal occupation of water bodies seems to become a norm, people in a certain part of the country ensure that their right is not hampered. Making their voices heard
the people of Kopilmuni emerge as winners
The south-west coastal region of Bangladesh is unique in several ways as it comprises the districts of Satkhira, Khulna, Bagerhat and the southern part of Jessore; the region is basically a tidal wetland that gets flooded by a high tide at least twice a day. As the land is fertile people in large numbers also moved in from other parts of the country and settled in the flood plains suitable for the cultivation of indigenous food and brackish-water-tolerant varieties of rice. On the other hand, the rivers and estuaries of the region were rich in bio-diversity with hundreds of species of fish and, all these factors together made the region self-sufficient in rice and fish production. Relevant to mention that, with such blessings at one time there used to be no scarcity of employment and food in the region. Moreover, the largest continuous mangrove forest of the world, the Sunderbans is situated to the south of flood plains, adjacent to the Bay of Bengal.
During the 1960s, the then Government of East Pakistan implemented a coastal embankment project with a view to cultivate high yielding varieties of rice; a number of western donor agencies funded it and the Dutch government provided technical support with which the project was completed in 1973. However, the project design failed to comprehend the environment and ecological consequences on an embankment construction and although the immediate impact resulted in bumper crop production in the initial years, the inhabitants started to face severe environmental and ecological problems, well within a decade.
In the post embankment period, as the tidal water could not enter into the tidal plain, silt was deposited at the upper ends of the estuary and gradually the riverbeds began to rise. As the East Pakistan WAPDA took the initiative to construct 37 polders, 1556 kilometer of embankment and 282 sluice gates, inside the polders, the wetlands subsided due to non-deposition of silt and gradually, took the shape of lakes.
These polders that were constructed to solve the salinity problem were taken over by some corrupt and influential officials (chairman of the union) and used for shrimp cultivation instead of high yielding varieties of rice; hence the areas became waterlogged. The shrimp cultivators have taken the parts of the canal illegally and are now using it for shrimp cultivation causing more problems of water logging and according to government statistics, over 106,000 hectors of area became waterlogged at the time causing innumerable problems to the people of the area; the most affected being Horidhali and Kopilmuni Unions under the Paikgacha sub-district in Khulna district.
Some of the problems that are faced by them are:
l Shrimp cultivation closes the canal’s flow hence crores of takas worth of fisheries are lost
l 40-50 thousand people of the area facing water logging have become penniless and are having to migrate to other places
l Waterborne diseases are spreading making the area an unhealthy one to live in
l scarcity of drinking water is taking shape
l roads and roadside trees have been devastated
l A lot of landless and single women earned their daily subsistence through catching crabs and other small fish but they are being denied of this right now.
l As the lands are waterlogged the source of livelihood for the people is facing an obstacle and consequently, managing one meal a day has become almost impossible.
Understandably, a lot of social changes have taken place and many people have either migrated to other places or have moved into other professions like working at the brick fields, construction sites and shrimp farms.
The problem became unbearable especially in 2003, when the two unions suffered severe water logging and damage of crops due to heavy rainfall; the people of Kapilmuni union tried to solve it by taking their own measures. They organized a Water Management Committee, a civil society group that was named ‘Satkhira Water Management Committee’ and actively got involved to solve this problem; Uttaran, a local NGO based in Satkhira also assisted them and ActionAid Bangladesh, an international NGO gave them financial assistance. A memorandum was submitted to the water resources minister through the District Commissioner (DC) of Khulna as well as the MP and UNO. Other activities undertaken by them included blocking or gheraoing the UNO, the Water Development Board and the DC’s office and sending their representatives to the water resources ministry to pressurize the authorities. After they sustained this movement (one of the key activities being local people creating a huge gathering, of 3000 people and marching to the Khulna DC’s Office) throughout the year and after a lot of pressure came from the people and the Water Management Committee, the Paikgacha UNO sent a report to the DC of Khulna, on 10th September 2004 requesting to open the Nasirpur canal to enable access for the people. In this aspect, the DC of Khulna then sent a report on the Nasirpur canal to the ministry of land on the 9th of January 2005.
Some of the main highlights of the people’s movement in this area are:
l 21 October 2003:The water management committee was formed as the people of the area decided to go for a movement to claim their rights to the canal
l 22nd October 2003: The first petition against illegal occupation was submitted to the DC’s office in Khulna.
l 22nd November 2003: The people of the area marched in a group to the local administration’s office in Paikgacha and submitted a petition signed by the people.
l 28th of November 2003: The DC asks the local authorities to submit a status report on the canal situation.
l 3rd January: 2004: The report on illegal occupation of the canal by shrimp merchants was submitted to the DC’s Office.
l 8th June 2004: A huge march of 3000 people took place from the area to the office of the DC of Khulna to submit another petition; at this time the illegal shrimp merchants also lodged a case at the Judge Court. Eventually, a stay order was given against the people
l 20th June 2004: the people also hired a lawyer to fight the stay order
l 22d June 2004: the stay order was dispelled and the DC’s office ordered the local authorities to take over the Nasirpur canal.
l 17th July 2004: the Water Management Committee gave a petition to the land ministry after which the order came to the office of the DC of Khulna to submit a detailed status report on the case
l 10th of September 2004: the Paikgacha upazilla authorities submitted a detailed report on the Nasirpur canal case after pressure from the people’s movement
l 9th January 2005: The ministry of land prepared a file and report on the Nasirpur case and started looking into the issue; at this time the Water Management Committee also kept a regular contact with them. At this time AAB also sent a request letter to the ministry to take necessary steps to free the Nasirpur canal from the clutches of illegal shrimp farmers.
l 18th April 2005: the ministry ordered the DC of Khulna to resolve all disputes and legal procedures for the benefit of the crops of the locality and to reduce water logging of the area by opening up the 60.2 acre long Nasirpur Canal
During the movement, people’s feelings are described aptly in the statement below:
‘How many more days will I live? You go ahead with the fight and I am behind you all the way, I am ready to do whatever it takes to open the canal, I am tired of seeing my family go hungry all the time.’—Pir Ali Ghazy (70) a resident of Horidhali Union and an activist in the movement).
ActionAid Bangladesh, which was also supporting the Water Management Committee and its local partner Uttaran sent a letter to the Land Ministry to open the waters Nasirpur Canal to the people.
The DC of Khulna has ordered that 60.20 acres of the Nasirpur Canal cannot be used as a shrimp farming area and the water management committee has contacted the DC of Khulna for proper implementation of the government order.
According to Rezaul Karim, the Secretary of the Water Management Committee, ’the people in the area are still very angry. If the authority doesn’t take any steps to implement the order, then we will have to do it our own way; we will take over the canal if necessary. But we are willing to wait and give the government a chance to implement the order.’
Some of the main highlights of the people’s movement in this area are
l 21 October 2003:The water management committee was formed as the people of the are decided to go for a movement to claim their rights to the canal
l 22nd October 2003: The first petition against the illegal occupation was submitted to the DC’s office in Khulna
l 22nd November 2003: The people of the are marched in a group to the local administration’s office in Paikgacha and submitted a petion signed by the people
l 28th of November 2003: The Dc asks the local authorities to submit a status report on the canal situation
l 3rd January:2004: the report on the illegal occupation of the canal by the shrimp merchants was submitted to the DC’s Office
l 8th June 2004:A huge march of 3000 people took place from the area to the Khulna Dc’s office to submit another petition, at this time the illegal shrimp merchant also lodged a case in the Judge Court against the people to be allowed to do his shrimp farming in the water, hence a stay order was given against the people
l 20th June 2004: the people also hired a lawyer to fight the stay order
l 22d June 2004: the stay order was dispelled and the DCs office ordered the local authorities to take over the Nasirpur canal
l 17th July 2004: the Water Management Committee gave a petition to the land ministry after which the order came to the Khulna Dc’s office to submit a detailed status report on the case
l 10th of September 2004: the Paikgacha upazilla authorities submitted a detailed report on the Nasirpur canal case after pressure from the people’s movement
l 9th January 2005: The land Ministry also prepared a file and report on the Nasirpur case and started looking into the issue, at this time the Water Management Committee also kept a regular contact with them .At this time AAB also sent a request letter to the Land Ministry to take necessary steps to free the Nasirpur canal from the clutches of the illegal shrimp farmer
l 18th April 2005: the ministry ordered the DC of Khulna to resolve all disputes and legal procedures for the benefit of the crops of the locality and to reduce water logging of the area by opening up the 60.2 acre long Nasirpur Canal.
— ActionAid, Bangladesh
Talking parrot fashion
N’kisi the African grey parrot doesn’t parrot. He talks. What’s more, he has a sense of humour, writes Eleanor O’Hanlon
When the African grey parrot N’kisi met primatologist Dr Jane Goodall, his first words to her were “got a chimp?” N’kisi had seen photos of Jane with the chimpanzees of Gombe, and the images had clearly made an impression. Bred in captivity almost six years ago, N’kisi is one of the most advanced non-human users of human language. New York-based artist Aimee Morgana spends hours with him each day, speaking to him, explaining what she does in simple sentences and encouraging him to develop what she describes as a spontaneous and creative relationship with language. “N’kisi says what he wants, when he wants. I do not use any form of treat reward. My aim as a teacher is to give him power with the tools of language, to see what he wants to say,” she says.
Parrot patois
N’kisi has a vocabulary of almost 950 words which he uses in context and with past, present and future verb tenses. He comments on what is going on around him, invents original expressions - Aimee’s aromatherapy oils become “pretty smell medicine” in parrot patois - and likes to recall exciting events like his first ride in a car, badgering Aimee to take him out again like a persistent toddler, in a way manner familiar to any exasperated parent: “Wanna go in a car right now. Remember? We were in a car...” “We can’t go because we don’t have a car,” Aimee explains patiently. “I want a car! Let’s get a car!”
N’kisi even displays what I can only describe as a dry sense of humour: when Aimee’s other African grey Endora hung upside down by her claws and began rocking back and forth, he commented “you got to put this bird on the camera.”
The project, according to Jane Goodall, is an outstanding example of interspecies communication. Studies in animal communication, such as those carried out with bonobos by Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and others, have been described as opening windows to the animal mind that would otherwise have remained closed to us.
Talking to the animals
Their findings and the field observations by primatologists such as Dr Goodall have increasingly allowed us to accept that a strong current of evolutionary continuity in thought, feeling and communication courses between us and our fellow primates. But does the pattern extend to creatures genetically so far removed from human beings? Professor Donald Broom, who studies the cognitive abilities of cattle and sheep at the University of Cambridge, says the answer is yes. “The more we look at the cognitive abilities of animals, the more advanced they appear, and the biggest leap of all has been with parrots. They have an ability to form concepts at a high level. You would have to look at bonobos and chimpanzees to find something comparable.”
ESP: extra-sensory parrot
N’kisi’s story does not end here. Aimee quickly noticed that some of N’kisi’s comments appeared to echo her own unspoken thoughts: looking at the photograph of a vivid purple car, she heard N’kisi, who was out of sight, say “oh, look at the pretty purple.” She contacted biologist Dr Rupert Sheldrake, and together they designed a series of double-blind experiments to see if any pattern beyond chance could be found running through these comments.
In his living room, on the edge of Hampstead Heath, Rupert Sheldrake showed me the time-coded, split-screen video made of the experiments. One side of the screen showed Aimee as she opened and examined a series of photographic images based on 19 key words from N’kisi’s vocabulary. These had been sealed in envelopes, randomised and then numbered by an independent observer. The other showed N’kisi in an enclosed room on another floor, to prevent inadvertent physical cues.
N’kisi was allowed two minutes to speak each time Aimee opened a new envelope. Sometimes he simply chattered about events of the day and didn’t say any of the keywords. Then Aimee drew out the photo of a man talking on the phone. “What ya doin on the phone?” N’kisi asked a few moments later. She examined a photo of a couple hugging “Can I give you a hug?” he said. Aimee opened another envelope containing the image of a driver leaning out through the car window. “Oh oh, careful. You put your head out,” said N’kisi.”
Against the odds
That response and others like it were not counted as positive results in the subsequent analysis: N’kisi had not used the pre-selected key word that corresponded to the image. But, during 71 trials, N’kisi correctly used 23 key words against the 7 or so that might be expected to emerge in random chatter. An independent computer analysis gave odds of more than 2,000 to 1 against these results being due to chance. The results have been published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Scientific Exploration.
We know little about the ecological pressures that drove the evolution of the African grey’s intelligence and ability to communicate. But research indicates that they add their own complex patterns of whistles, calls and screeches to the rich fabric of sound in the forest. From being a voice within that living symphony of sound, the awareness of a captive parrot is focused on a single human. Perhaps it is not surprising that the bond should become so intense that it comes to resemble a merging of minds.
From an original article in the February 2004 issue of BBC Wildlife Magazine - Talking parrot fashion.
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