Haor Master Plan, tourism and the persistent housing crisis in the haors

This 185 metre long bridge connects the road with what appeared to be an island on the west side of the road, i.e the Vatshala village. Photo: Ashraful Haque

To get to Vatshala village of Austagram upazila in Kishoreganj district, one can take the all-weather road that connects the haor upazilas of Itna, Mithamain and Austagram.

The road, albeit two-lane, is wide enough for light traffic. It is smooth, clean and scenic, with vast water on both sides during monsoon that changes colour with weather. With the clear sky and morning sun, it looked blue, almost like a sea, although one could see the tree line in the horizon, indicating the presence of land.

The beauty of haors has always attracted tourists. In the northern haors in Sunamganj, it is the himalayan foothills just across the border and patches of Hijal trees sticking out of water that draws a lot of tourists every year during monsoon. In Kishoreganj haors, it is the all-weather road, constructed a few years back.

Photo: Ashraful Haque

Even in the morning, we saw several groups of tourists, either speeding on their bikes, or taking selfies on the bridges.

We stopped in front of a wooden bridge, about six kilometres away from Austagram. The bridge is about 185 metre long, standing on bamboo struts. It connects the road with what appeared to be an island on the west side of the road, i.e the Vatshala village.

Paying a Tk5 toll per person, we entered the village. "Where is the road?" I asked my local guide, a 13 year old boy.

He pointed in a direction and started walking. I followed him through the narrow space between the tin-shed or half-pucca houses and the edge of the island. It could hardly be called a road, but we kept navigating through the haystacks, duck cages and cow sheds protruding into the walkway.

Over-crowded villages

After a minute, we found ourselves walking through 2.5 to 3-feet gaps between the houses. Finally, we reached a place where there were three shops with a couple of benches, all occupied by enthusiastic television watchers.

Photo: Ashraful Haque

There, we found the only official road: a 7-8 feet wide, unpaved, unlevel and dirty path, accompanied with an uncovered earthen drain.

The whole place was crammed with houses with no apparent hope of getting any better anytime soon.

Although there is no shortage of land in the haors, the villages hardly grow in size, and with the increasing population, they get more crowded.

"The depth of water during the monsoon is the main challenge. Around Vatshala village, the depth is about 10 feet. Yet, this place is comparatively higher than many places in the haors," said Monir Hossain, an expat worker living in Vatshala village in Kastul union in Austagram upazila.

Those who have houses located on the edge of the villages are luckier. They can extend their homestead with relative ease - what they need to do is fetch earth from their farmland and raise the ground level beside their original homes.

"Those who do not have this privilege, need to buy land beside the village and then develop it. Of course, it is not easy because someone has to decide to sell land first," Monir said, while feeding his toddler sitting in a small restaurant. "Most would choose to keep the land for the future," he added.

Vatshala village consists of about 16 acres (a little over 65 thousand sq metre), and the population is 7,000, meaning there is less than 10 sq metre area for each person, including all the roads, shops and community places of the village. This is less than what one person needs inside an apartment to live comfortably. One can imagine from this how much space one gets inside their haor home.

And this scenario is commonplace across all the haor villages.

"The island villages are densely populated. Suppose you are walking through a narrow path; you may stumble upon a woman coming out from their bathroom. There's little privacy, and that's the reality in those villages," said Sazedul Karim Sajjad, an IT professional from Jawar village in Tarail, Kishoreganj.

Failing to avail space close to the village, some are now venturing to create tiny island villages nearby. There are 7-8 tiny villages around Vatshala as well.

These islands consist of only a couple of houses, often belonging to extended family members.

Building a new island home has its own set of challenges. These are more vulnerable in the face of 'afal,' the strong waves lashing the villages during the storms. Even the older villages get eroded by the impacts of the afal. 

But afal is only the last challenge. The land outside the villages are classified as cropland, and it is illegal to change land class without government's permission. Although local authorities often turn a blind eye to such construction out of humanitarian consideration, sometimes they don't, and villagers are barred from building homes on farmland.

Haor Master Plan 

The Master Plan of Haor Area, developed in 2012 by the Department of Bangladesh Haor and Wetlands Development (then Haor and Wetland Development Board), includes plans to protect the villages of haor from wave erosion and flash floods, expansion of eco-friendly settlement area, ensuring housing for the poor and development of rural livelihood to ensure a healthy liveable environment. 

Using the earth obtained from the dredging of rivers, the Master Plan envisioned projects to develop 38 settlement areas consisting 1,396 ha, and development of 38 eco-villages. The plans also include construction of revetment works and green belt to protect the villages from wave erosion.

About 11 years after the formulation of the Master Plan, what happened to the implementation of the plan?

"No progress yet in this regard," Md Akhtaruzzaman, Director General of the Department of Bangladesh Haor and Wetlands Development told The Business Standard.

"But we are in the process of adopting umbrella projects. There will be surveys and dredging of the rivers since sedimentation is high. We will promote aquaculture in some areas as it is five times more profitable than paddy cultivation. We will also plant trees to offset carbon emission. We will build some facilities with watch towers where people can come and spend time, have food," the DG continued.

"We also need to protect the villages so they are not eroded by the strong waves during the monsoon," he said.

Akhtaruzzaman added that the department will do all these in association with the Fisheries Department, Forest Department, Water Development Board, and Tourism Board.

Improvement is not impossible

Those living and working in the haors apparently have a different priority list than what the Haor Development Department is planning.

"The larger villages in the haors should be connected through roads. These roads will be short in length, unlike the Austagram-Mithamain-Nikli road. That way, these roads will not harm the haor's ecosystem by impeding the natural flow of water, but will improve people's lives by enhancing local connectivity," said Sohel Talukdar, a bank manager hailing from Khaliajuri, Netrokona.

Roads are known to encourage the expansion of villages because people build houses beside new roads, he said.

"The roads act as a protection against the 'afal'," he said, adding that the same happened in his own village, Krishnapur. 

These micro-networks of roads make life more convenient for the villagers, as communication becomes faster, and they do not have to depend on boats for day-to-day commute.

Sohel cautioned that proper studies must be undertaken before constructing such roads so that they don't impede water flow.

 He also mentioned that some NGOs have built shelter houses for homeless people in the haor, and also made retention walls to protect villages.

Sohel also mentioned that the submersible roads constructed in the haors contributed greatly to the farmers, making it easy to bring the yield home.

The same experience is shared by other haor residents in neighbouring districts. 

Sazedul Karim Sajjad said even the submersible roads help reduce the impact of afal, a menace for the haor people. 

"In our neighbouring villages, new homes have been built beside the submersible and all season roads in great numbers. The expansion can be attributed to the protection provided by the roads," Sajjad said.