In this article you will know about thr present condition of halda river and what are the problems that the river are facing and what will be the remedies. By taking measures according to the solution prescrived in this article the authority can save this important river.
Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction:
The deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources is known as environmental degradation. Rivers are one kind of wetland which play very crucial roles in the development of any country (Kabir et al., 2016a). Halda River is one of the most significant rivers of Bangladesh because it is the only pure carp breeding field in Bangladesh as well as South Asia (Akter and Ali, 2012). The river delivers favorable physicochemical factors for the major Indian carps and creates a amiable environment for their spawning during monsoon between April and June (Kabir et al., 2016b). Halda is one of the major contributing rivers to the national economy of Bangladesh.The river is contributing total value in million US$ segmented of fishing, fish fry, irrigation, drinking water, water transportation and sand extraction respectively were 0.07, 0.005, 15.78,1.33, 0.12, 2.51 (Kabir et al., 2016b). According to a research the resources of Halda river are depleting day by day due to over-fishing, cutting off of existing oxbow bands, changes in water quality, sedimentation on the river bed, shortage of sanctuaries, unplanned sluice gate establishment, change in ecological system, lack of proper assessment of brood fish and management of the broods at their origin, immense sand mining, water contamination by industrial wastes, denudation of various species of fishes towards gradual extinction – including carps, unchecked riverbank erosion and above all global climate change .The depletion of recent egg production in Halda river is a fulgent evidence of this study.
In recent years, Salinity intrusion is another major issue for Halda river ecosystem. The people of Chittagong city are facing serious water problem in the dry season because of salinity. Besides, crop land of the riverbank are significantly affected, and this reduces the production of crops (Akter and Ali, 2012).
Halda is one of the most valuable rivers in Chittagong city after Kornofulli River. It is very important river for Bangladesh also. There is no river in the world like Halda river from where fertilized eggs of carps can be collected during the breeding season. Its unique features and it made it as a most valuable river in our country as well as south Asia. This prominent river is important for natural breeding ground for many Indian Carps. (Alam et al., 2013a) Originating from Halda chora, in Ramgarh Upazila under Khagrachari District, It flows through Fatikchhari Upazila, Hathazari Upazila, Raozan Upazila and Chittagong Chandgaon Thana before falling into the Karnaphuli River. The 98 km long river has a very stormy tributary.
To get practical knowledge and conduct a survey we, the student of environmental science 35th batch visited the river under the course of “Anthropogenic Environmental Degradation.” We tried to reach the local people and understand their problems.
Objectives:
The objectives of the tour to Halda river are:
- To percept about the environmental degradation in Halda
- To determine the level of environmental degradation in Halda
- To determine the major environmental degradation in Halda
- To make a ranking of the environmental degradation in Halda
- To evaluate the causes of environmental degradation in Halda
- To visualize the significant impact of environmental degradation in Halda river ecosystem
- To determine Impacts of environmental degradation on local peoples livelihood
- To find out the suggestions from local people about mitigation of environmental degradation in Halda river
- To percept the role of community for mitigation of the environmental degradation
- To determine the expectation of local people from government institutions
Bangladesh is riverine country. There are about 720 rivers in Bangladesh. Many types of research have been done with this rivers. The researches are mainly done to evaluating the ecosystem value of this river, the Implications of Climate Change on these rivers, the results of anthropogenic degradation on the rivers.
Literature Review on River of Halda:
Halda is a important river for Bangladesh. So, a lot of researches are done to determine the value of this river.
Such an research is “A Check list of bony fish collected from the Upper Halda River, Chittagong, Bangladesh” is a major research on Halda river.
This research is done to make a list of bony fish in Halda river. In this research a result has come that the fish fauna in this river is dominated by the family of Cyprinidae (28.57 %) represented by 18 species, followed by Gobiidae (9.52 %) represented by 6 species and Schibeidae (7.94 %) with 5 species, than Bagridae and Channidae (6.35 %) with 4 species each, Siluridae (4.76 %) with 3 species. Among the listed families of Halda river, there are 14 families which are represented by a single species and 4 families by 2 species. The over-all number of species is 63 belonging to 51 genera connect to to 24 families and 9 orders. The current study reported 5 migrant species from the Bay of Bengal and 3 species as exotic species (Alam et al., 2013b).
By studying this research, we get the idea about the fish species of the Halda river.
Another research is done on the Halda river is “Environmental flow requirements assessment in the Halda River, Bangladesh”.
By studying this research we can know about the environmental flow requirements in the Halda River. From this study, it was found that floods are likely to occur at least once in 2.1, 1.02, 1.75 and 1.25 years at Panchpukuria, Narayanhat, Telpari and Enayethat stations, respectively. The results of flow and water quality studies recommend that environmental flow necessities cannot be achieved in this river throughout the year (Akter and Ali, 2012).
Another study is found about the “Assessment of fish distribution and biodiversity status in Upper Halda River, Chittagong, Bangladesh”. In this study the status of biodiversity of Halda river is included. From this study total 4,337 individuals of fish were counted. From this study we found that 63 species belong to 24 families and 51 genera were recorded. The study shows that the most abundant family was Cyprinidae, having 817 individuals (18.84%) followed by Gobiidae family with 629 individuals (Alam et al., 2013a).
A study found on the ecosystem services of Halda river that is “Conservation of a river for biodiversity and ecosystem services: the case of the Halda – the unique river of Chittagong, Bangladesh”. By close study of this research the total economic benefits generated from provisioning services of the Halda is approximately BDT 1753 million. The economic value is now much more at present. Irrigation and drinking water were the major contributors with BDT 1333 and 122 million, respectively (Kabir et al., 2015).
Moreover, we found from this study that Halda supports temporary and permanent livelihood for egg and fry collectors, boatmen, boat building and mending, sand quarrying. This creates a cumulative worth of BDT 283 million Taka. (Kabir et al., 2015)
Halda is not free from the Engineering activities and their mismanagement. A study is to evaluate it. We will know about it by studying this research “Engineering activities and their mismanagement at Halda: a unique river for natural spawning of Major Indian carps” By studying this research we will know that among the 12 sluice gates/regulators, only 3 are useful for irrigation and drainage management while rest gates are not suitable for irrigation and drainage system. The sustainability of its natural resources are being threatened by the rubber dam, immense sand quarrying by local leaders and businessmen from 20 legal and illegal sand extraction stations, cutting of 11 oxbow bends over the last 100 years, two government irrigation projects, a total of 22 brickfields along the two banks of this river and mismanagement of these engineering activities.
Without participation of local communities, the sustainable management and utilization of the ecosystem services cannot be imagined. The study for community involvement on Halda river management is also conducted. This is “COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT IN RIVER MANAGEMENT FOR ECOSYSTEM SERVICES AND LIVELIHOOD: A CASE STUDY OF HALDA RIVER IN BANGLADESH” The objectives of this research aim at defining the communities’ perception, livelihood options from its ecosystem services, and willingness to participate in Halda River management.
The study showed that 51.40% respondents from surveyed households had a great concern about this river. The result of the study found that most of the respondents (49.53%) visit in Halda River sometimes and 28.04% of the surveyed respondents’ main purpose of visiting this river was water transportation. About 64.5% people give an opinion that natural resources of this river are depleting day by day (Kabir et al., 2016b)
By this literature review we found that, a lot of research have done with the river Halda. But this river has gained special interest in recent times for being the only tidal freshwater river in the world were major Indian carps spawn naturally. So, more research should be done with this river. Basically, to determine when the fish will lay the egg, Using Gis technology on the river of Halda is very needed.
Methodology:
We about 36 students of 5th semester of Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Sciences make a survey to determine the anthropogenic environmental degradation in river and the causes behind it. We have make a questionnaires with 10 questions and conducted a random sampling survey in Modhona gat area.We have divided ourselves at different part of this area randomly. The surveyed area was Madarha, Urkirchor, Dokkhin Madarsha, Maddam Madarsha, Maheskram, Zia Bazar, Zele Para, Uttor Madarsha, Barua Para, and Majipara. We conducted this survey at morning to noon and we made another survey at afternoon at the adjacent part of Halda in Rawzan upazila.
For data collection we selected household randomly and the people who were interested. A well defined questionnaires is set to evaluate the causes anthropogenic environmental degradation, ranking environmental degradation, major environmental degradation in halda river ecosystem, impacts of environmental degradation on the local peoples livelihood and role of communities and governmental institutions in mitigating anthropogenic environmental degradation.
Data collection:
By the direct guideline of our respected teacher we interviewed the local people from the visited area under the well-structured questionnaire set. We take data randomly that is there is no selective option for male or female or age based.
Data analysis:
Collected data were processed by Microsoft Excel and analyzed by statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS).
Results of Halda river Study:
The result found from the study are follows:
Major Environmental Degradations of Halda river:
Major Environmental Impacts of Halda river due to degradation:
Recommendations to reduce Degradation of Halda river:
Discussions:
From the result we found the major environmental degradation in the river of Halda there are river erosion, over flow, water pollution and water logging. Some other minor degradations are degradation of fish habitat and salinity intrusion.
From the result we found that the main causes of degradation is discharge waste water, over exploitation of fish, dredging, siltation and sluice gate. The kaptai dam is also responsible for the causes of the anthropogenic environmental degradation.
By analyzing the results, we have found that the major impacts of the degradation of the fish abundance, crop destruction and agricultural impossible. Besides job transformation plays3 a significant impact for degradation of Halda river ecosystem.
The results also give a recommendation to reduce the anthropogenic environmental degradation. The main recommendation is construction of dam, awareness creation and introduction of co- management program.
Conclusion:
Halda River is one of the most resourceful rivers in Bangladesh. This river provides a number of products and services all-round the year to the communities living its vicinity. However, it has attained a very special identity and is frequently referred as a national natural heritage by being the only breeding and spawning ground for major Indian carps. Halda river fulfills two conditions fully and one condition by half among the four conditions of the UNESCO for being a site in world heritage. We hope that, Halda river will be a national natural heritage within few days and in future it will be a world heritage site. For this purpose, we should protect halda river from being degraded by anthropogenic causes. Besides, modern technology (like GIS, remote sensing) should be used for more fish production.
Hope you will be benifited by reading this article on Halda river, if you have any quary feel free to comment below. The references have used in this study is given below. You may visit this website Besides to know more information about the river.
REFERENCES:
Akter, A., and Ali, M.H. (2012). Environmental flow requirements assessment in the Halda River, Bangladesh. Hydrological Sciences Journal 57, 326–343.
Alam, M.S., Hossain, M.S., Monwar, M.M., and Hoque, M.E. (2013a). Assessment of fish distribution and biodiversity status in Upper Halda River, Chittagong, Bangladesh. International Journal of Biodiversity and Conservation 5, 349–357.
Alam, M.S., Hossain, M.S., Monwar, M.M., Hoque, M.E., Taimur, F.M., and others (2013b). Check-list of bony fish collected from the Upper Halda River, Chittagong, Bangladesh. AACL Bioflux 6, 333–338.
Kabir, H., Kibria, M., Jashimuddin, M., and Hossain, M.M. (2015). Conservation of a river for biodiversity and ecosystem services: the case of the Halda–the unique river of Chittagong, Bangladesh. International Journal of River Basin Management 13, 333–342.
Kabir, M., Kibria, M., Jashimuddin, M., Hossain, M.M., and others (2016a). COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT IN RIVER MANAGEMENT FOR ECOSYSTEM SERVICES AND LIVELIHOOD: A CASE STUDY OF HALDA RIVER IN BANGLADESH. Environmental
Research Journal 10.
Kabir, M., Kibria, M., Jashimuddin, M., Hossain, M.M., and others (2016b). COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT IN RIVER MANAGEMENT FOR ECOSYSTEM SERVICES AND LIVELIHOOD: A CASE STUDY OF HALDA RIVER IN BANGLADESH. Environmental
Research Journal 10.
One reply on “Halda River Bangladesh A Critical Study”
[…] Is there any environmental pollution in Bangladesh tha i have not mentioned? Please comment below if is there any. click the link to know a study on Halda river. […]