Authorities say the recovery plan will target nets, bamboo barriers and major structures, while landless families living on river basins pose a rehabilitation challenge.
The district administration in southwestern Bangladesh’s Satkhira has drawn up an eviction plan to free rivers and navigation canals from illegal occupation after identifying 302 people as encroachers along the Kopotakkho, Ichhamati and Betna rivers.
The administration will begin removing illegal fishing nets and bamboo barriers from Saturday, July 18, as part of efforts to restore the natural flow and navigability of the district’s rivers and canals.
The full eviction plan was prepared following strict instructions from the National River Conservation Commission, based on field investigations and fresh verification by local assistant commissioners for land.
The district administration’s revenue branch has formally sent the long-term action plan to the chairman of the commission. It has also published the eviction outline on the administration’s official web portal to raise public awareness.
A review of the report and eviction plan shows that major rivers, including the Kopotakkho, Ichhamati and Betna, as well as several connecting navigation canals, have long been under illegal occupation by locally influential people and land grabbers.
The encroachers have taken over government land along river basins and built permanent and temporary tin-roofed houses, large boundary walls, commercial fish enclosures, ponds, mango orchards and cropland. In some mouzas, commercial brick kilns and industrial sheds have been built inside river areas.
According to the information obtained, about 10 major encroachers have been identified along the Ichhamati river in Radhanagar mouza of Satkhira Sadar upazila. In Binerpota mouza, illegal boundary walls and a large factory shed were found to have been built by occupying the original boundary of the Betna river.
The district administration said final notices had already been served to the encroachers on the Betna river and that eviction activities were under way at the field level.
Evidence was also found that navigation canals in different mouzas of Satkhira Sadar upazila had been occupied for paddy cultivation and fish farming. In Babulia mouza, final evidence was found that two commercial brick kilns, named Kamrul SBB and Monir SBL, had been built inside the river boundary.
Officials said a crash programme had been prepared with a maximum 50-day timeline to fully recover the most important sites before the monsoon season begins in full.
Satkhira district administration sources said the list of illegal encroachers on each river in the district had been rechecked at the field level by assistant commissioners for land under instructions from the National River Conservation Commission.
The district administration has adopted a zero-tolerance policy on river protection, the sources said. Eviction work is continuing on the Betna river and mobile eviction drives will be conducted soon in other areas. Despite social challenges, there will be no compromise when it comes to rivers and the environment, they said.
The government report shows the most alarming picture of encroachment along the Kopotakkho river basin in Magura, Jagadanandakati, Putiyakhali, Rajendrapur and Jalalpur mouzas of Tala upazila.
There, more than 100 people have occupied the main river area and are living in permanent and temporary tin-roofed houses.
The district administration has decided to conduct mobile court-led eviction drives to remove the encroachers from the Kopotakkho river. But it has identified two major obstacles to the eviction plan.
The first is a severe shortage of manpower and logistical support for carrying out strong and coordinated eviction drives at the field level. The second is that a large section of those living on the river basin are genuinely landless families, making humanitarian considerations and rehabilitation a major social challenge for the eviction operation.
Madhab Chandra Dutta, Satkhira district secretary of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon, an environmental rights group, and a member of the National Committee on River Protection, said proper enforcement of river laws was essential.
“Practically, if our river law and the later amended river law are properly implemented in the field with importance, then people will move away from river encroachment and pollution,” he said.
“What is needed most first is to make people aware. A river is actually a living entity. If the river does not survive, Satkhira will not survive. If the river does not survive, our life and nature will not survive. Therefore, a river must never be used as personal property or private wealth. It is state property and is governed by state law. If the law is properly applied against those who are encroaching and polluting, the rivers will be protected.”
He said the administration’s official website had published a list of about 350 river encroachers in Satkhira.
“If the list has already been finalised, then where is the administration’s failure or delay in evicting these river encroachers even after they have been identified?” Dutta said.
“I think that since they have been identified, the administration must quickly evict them by enforcing state law. And if any obstacle or obstruction arises while enforcing this state law, the administration must take very strict action against it. This is the strong demand we are making to the administration on behalf of the citizens’ committee.”
Moinul Islam Moin, additional deputy commissioner for general affairs in Satkhira, said the administration had already started working in full swing to implement the eviction plan.
“First, we will seek the necessary budget or allocation from the Ministry of Land to conduct the eviction drive,” he said. “Once the allocation is received, the main operation to evict all encroachers will begin gradually.
“However, from today, Saturday, July 18, we are starting the initial drive against nets and bamboo barriers. After that, river land will be recovered from major encroachers. The entire process is being directly monitored by the National River Conservation Commission, so no one, whether small, big or influential, will get any exemption in the eviction process.”
He said the administration’s main plan was also to plant trees on recovered land to protect rivers and prevent reoccupation.
