The day after my class I traveled to Bangladesh mainly for travel. We first crossed the 4.8 km long Jamuna Bridge and drove to Sirajganj Hardpoint, an embankment that protects the town of the same name. The river kept moving westward, threatening towns and causing failures on the embankments. Bangladesh has filled the land north and south of the embankment with even coastline, and now the river has been removed. Sand poles entered by boat, so the embankment was much quieter than when it first visited here a decade ago. Nevertheless, we have an overview of the river and the charcoal visited the previous day.
Then we drove to Kushtia by bus. We spent the day driving rice, corn and vegetable fields in the countryside, while those who were reluctant to fast had lunch on the way. We drove past Bangladesh’s first nuclear power plant, are currently under test and crossing the Ganges. On the other hand, we drive through Kushtia to the tomb of the mysterious poet, philosopher and social reformer Lalon Shah, considered a model of Bengali culture. The night before, we heard one of his songs in a musical performance. At the shrine, some of his followers played several of his songs for us.
Next, we head to where the Gorai River split from the Ganges. Gorai is a major river that brings fresh water to southwestern Bangladesh, but now during low water flows in winter it needs to be dug out to stay open and flowing. This is due to the combination of natural and human changes. The main Ganges channel moved eastward from the Hooghly River in India between 1550 and 1650. So many distribution rivers from branches such as Gorai have been declining since then. In addition, India built the Farakka barrage, which transferred the water to Hooghly to keep it open, thus reducing the drought season into Bangladesh.
We hiked hundreds of meters along the riverside of the embankment on the sand. Actually, we were doing slitting while there, and we had to get to the small river where we could see the actual Goleigh River. We stayed until we needed to check in the new hotel iftar.
In the morning, we went to Shilaidaha Kuthibari, the hometown of writer, poet philosopher and artist Rabindranath Tagore, the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature. His poems are written on the national anthem of Bangladesh and India. He comes from a rich man Zamindar family, collect taxes from large estates around his home. Even though he lived a century ago, you can see how his standard of living contrasts with many of the villagers we meet. His family wealth allowed him to write freely and pursue his own interests.
Then we returned to the Gole River and my students interviewed Life in char This is on the mainland outside the embankment. I listened to some interviews and joined Mahfuz Khan and my daughter Elizabeth, near the nearby Hindu temple. Since they weren’t fasting, they fed us brightly colored watermelons and rock apples. Elizabeth plays games with local kids.
By mid-afternoon we had to stop and go long to Khulna to join our boat M/V Kokilmoni; the drive was made of flat tires. We’ve gone iftar At a local restaurant in Jesol City, then continue to Kulna. exist Big sky (Water) We climbed onto the wooden country boat and took us to our larger boat. We join Tapas and Sakib, who work at BRAC, the world’s largest NGO, and are part of me with me. They traveled from Dhaka and arrived at the boat earlier that day. We spent the day at dinner (10pm) as the boat started to sail south.
The next morning the ship arrived at our first destination, Sreenagar and Suterkhali at Polder32. Bangladesh speaks Dutch. Polder Embankment island used in the coastal delta. The embankment was built in the 1960s and 1970s to improve agriculture and initially worked very well. However, the embankment cuts off the supply of sediment to the island’s interior to offset land settlement. Now all the delta is sinking, without enough sediment to balance it, the land is lost or submerged. This is a major problem in the Mississippi Delta, currently losing the football field every 100 minutes. Additionally, at Polder 32, the dike was violated by Cyclone Aila in 2009, and the loss of elevation means it flooded 10 hours per climax for nearly 2 years. The 10,000 families in the area must live on the embankment wall during that time until repairs are completed.
Since high tide is low, it is not necessary to cross the deep mud ship landing ground. We continued to go to Suthary, where the forestry station offers a good Big sky. Here we first visited a shrimp farm that developed extensively in more moisture-containing polder seeds. We found that the commercial shrimp farm was abandoned because the owners were aligned with the Sheikh Hasina and Awami alliance, which was removed from the government during the July uprising.
We continued to go to the village for the rest of the mornings, but returned to the boat for lunch and rested as we struggled at the 100°F temperature of the heat wave. In the afternoon, after a long break, most of us went to Sreenagar, some of whom were staying fast for Ramadan. Kazi Matin and I show our rod surface elevation table (RSET) measurements of the location of the managed aquifer supply (MAR) here and abandoned. This is to use monsoon shui during the dry season for monsoon shui to be stored underground, but once NGO funds run out. Since the groundwater here is brine, there is a serious problem with having enough drinking water at the end of the dry season. Unlike the north, further north, most fields are fallow because there is no irrigated fresh water during the dry season.
After discussing the RSET and MAR website, Elizabeth and I went to the Krishna family, who hosted the RSET website for Carol Wilson of LSU. We know each other from previous visits to Carol. They welcomed us with open arms and gave us tamarind and coconut water. They used Elizabeth as a “little ode.” After my students finished the interview, we returned in time to Kokilmoni for Iftar and the boat began to go to the mangroves of Sandalban.
