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About 45,000 acres of land in Narsingdi and Brahmanbaria have been brought under irrigation with the treated waste water of two thermal power stations.
   Local sources said the treated waste water from Ashuganj and Ghorashal thermal power stations is now being utilised to irrigate these lands at 37 unions under seven upazilas in Narsingdi and Brahmanbaria.
   The irrigation of these lands with the waste water will help produce additional 78,500 tonnes of food grains, the sources added.
   The Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation launched the Ashuganj Polash Agro Irrigation Project in 1990 to irrigate lands utilising the waste water of the two power stations.
   The BADC sources said that 22 unions under sadar, Ashuganj, Sarail and Nabinagar upazilas in Brahmanbaria and 15 unions under sadar, Polash and Shibpur upazilas in Narsingdi have been brought under this project.
   One thousand cusecs of waste water of Ashuganj Thermal Power station is being utilised to irrigate 29,000 acres of land.
   About 16,000 acres of land have been brought under irrigation with 600 cusecs of water from the Ghorashal Thermal Power Station.
   The farmers using waste water for irrigation of their lands will have to pay water charge of Tk 200 for each acre of land.
   The BADC has dug canals and drains and constructed dams, control structures, sluice gates, culverts, foot bridges and link roads in the command areas of the project.
   Outlining the benefits of the project, a BADC official said the waste water of the two power plants was used to be discharged into nearby rivers in the past. ‘But now this water is being exploited to irrigate vast tracts of lands. As a result, hundreds of farmers are getting plenty of food grains’, he added.

The grim prospect of erosion of the Baliakandi Ashrayan Project at Harirampur upazila by the river Padma has sent panic among its 700 dwellers.
   The inhabitants of the project, which was set up in 2001 at a cost of Tk 50 lakh, are now living in great anxiety and uncertainty about their future.
   At least 50 houses of six barracks were washed away by the flood water during the last two years.
   The entire project having a total of 14 barracks is now threatened with erosion.
   Some flood affected inhabitants have already left the shelter for unknown places and some are preparing the leave soon.
   An inhabitant of the project said they were assured to be provided with little land
   and bulls for cultivation at the time of their settlement at the Ashrayan. But none us got any land and bull as yet,
   he added.
   ‘We don’t know what lies ahead of us if our barracks are wiped out by the erosion,’ said a dweller of the project.

The changing climate coupled with acute drinking water crisis has forced many rural people in the district to migrate to urban areas during the last few years.
   Both the well-off and the poor people at many villages in Satkhira district are leaving their ancestral homes because of adverse impact of environment and intrusion of saline water through rivers and shrimp culture.
   While shrimp culture has brought fortune to some powerful people in the last two decades, it destroyed crop lands, sweet-water sources, fresh water fishes, fruit-bearing trees, ecology and environment in the area.
   The villages, which were once full of greenery, now look like deserts with trees dying under high salinity. Birds now seldom fly in Tala, Ashashuni and sadar upazilas.
   The situation has reached such a grave situation that the villagers, especially women, have to walk miles to collect potable water for drinking.
   The women start at dawn to collect water from ponds at distant places.
   The situation has further aggravated following the identification of arsenic in the ground water in the last decade.
   The people stopped drinking tube-well waters, but severe water crisis compelled them to defy ban on drinking arsenic contaminated waters from tube-wells.
   “All of my brothers and cousins have left the village for towns and cities during the last decade just because of water crisis and climate change in our area,’’ said Mohiuddin Chowdhury, 50, who has dedicated his pond waters to the use of 10,000 people at Sriula village and adjoining areas under Ashashuni upazila.
   Chowdhury, 50, further said he has been staying at his village home just for the attrac-tion of his neighbours and sweet childhood memories. “Otherwise, the situation is not at all favourable for living here,” he said.
   “If you look into the houses, they are empty since their
   owners have migrated to Satkhira town and divisional headquarters, Khulna,” he said.
   Echoing Chowdhury, Abdul Mannan, who is looking after the “Reducing Vulnerability
   to Climate Change” project on behalf of the CARE Bangladesh, said the rate of migration from remote villages was very high.
   Many of the remotest villages have become almost empty because of difficulty to adapt with new environment, he said.

In sharp contrast to economic hardship that haunted the family of Kalaram Majhee even three years ago, they are now better off.
   In the past, Kalaram, an inhabitant of village Kakina under Kaliganj upazila, used to earn his living by working as agriculture labour.
   His income was meagre and irregular. His earnings could not meet the requirements of the members of his family. Hunger and hardship were a part and parcel of their life.
   His visit to the aquaculture extension project at the Kaliganj upazila headquarters in January 2002 just out of curiosity opened a window of new opportunity for him for a better future.
   The project officials advised to cultivate fish in the ditch in front of his house.
   They assured him to offer technical assistance for the venture.
   Taking a loan of Tk 5,000 from a local NGO, Kalaram set up a hatchery in the ditch.
   The venture was a tremendous success. Kalaram sold fish fry worth Tk 30,000 from his hatchery this year.
   With the profit money he bought land for cultivation, cows and a pumping machine.
   The days of hardship and hunger are a matter of past for Kalaram and the members of his family. He now looks to the future with confidence.
   Kalaram expressed his gratitude to the officials of the aquaculture extension project for their advice to him to take to pisciculture.
   Fish cultivation in a planned way can help the poor like him conquer poverty and hunger, according to Kalaram.
   Encouraged by the success of Kalaram many of his neighbours have embarked on the cultivation of fish in their ponds and small water bodies.

A court in Netrakona on Thursday convicted eight persons and sentenced them to life term imprisonment for killing a man.
   The convicts are former chairman of Duaj Union Parishad Shajahan Siraji, Mamtaj Uddin, Akkas Ali, Hafizur Rahman, Abdur Rahman, Abul Miah, Manjurul Haque and Rafiqul Islam.
   The court also fined them Tk 3000 each, in default, one month rigorous imprisonment more.
   According to the prosecution, Momtajuddin at the behest of the former chairman took co-villager Elahi Newaj to chairman’s house at village Duaj under Atpara upazila in the name of arbitration on the night of September 11, 1985.
   Later his body was recovered from a paddy field the following morning. The police on information recovered the body and sent it to sadar hospital for post-mortem examination.
   Abdul Kashem, son of the deceased, filed a case with the police against the chairman and seven others.
   After examining the witnesses and records, the additional district and session’s Judge AKM Mostafa Dewas pronounced the verdict in the crowded courtroom.

Twenty-two Bangladeshi fishermen and crew-members have been living in the police custody in West Bengal since September 10 after three fishing trawlers with 40 Bangladeshis, caught in a storm in the Bay, were forced to anchor at a fishing port of the Indian state.
   The remaining fishermen and crew-men could avoid arrest after they were given shelter by local fish traders, some owners of the trawlers from Barguna and Bagerhat and the representatives of the Trawler Owners Association of Barguna said on Saturday.
   They said FB Manir, FB Pinki and FB Rizia had sailed for the deep sea from Patharghata coast of Barguna on September 8.
   The ships caught in a storm in the deep sea on the night of September 9 were forced to take shelter at Kakdwip Fishing Port under Diamond Harbour of West Bengal on the morning September 10, the association president, Golam Mostafa said quoting a fish importer of West Bengal, Gopal Chandra Saha.
   The 22 fishermen and crew-members of FB Pinki and FB Rizia were caught by the Indian police.
   Ten of them, who fell sick, were admitted to local hospital under the police custody and the 12 others were sent to jail, Mostofa added.
   Eighteen other crew-members and fishermen of FB Manir were given shelter by the local fish traders, he added.
   Mostafa said they were keeping contact with the Indian fish traders and the Bangladesh High Commission in Kolkata to bring back the trawlers and the fishermen and crew-men as early as possible.