Unplanned sand lifting threatens Shah Pori Island embankment

 

Some six and a half kilometers of dredging pipes placed over the embankment of Shah Pori Island to fill up low lying areas for setting up a tourism park in Cox's Bazar is threatening the embankment built recently by the Water Development Board at a cost of Tk 150 crore.
China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd (CHEC), a contractor has been engaged for filling the low-lying area to set up Sabrang Tourism Park with sand extracted from the mouth of the Bay of Bengal.
The company is collecting sand from the estuary by dredger. They have set up three feet diameter pipes for the purpose. The vibration during sand extraction damaged the expensive embankment of Shah Pori Island, according to sources.  
The damage to the embankment will seriously affect biodiversity of the Shah Pori Island and could pose a threat to human lives and livelihoods, according to the sources.
It is learnt the CHEC managed high ups for setting up dredging pipes for the first phase of land filling works for Sabrang Tourism Park in Cox's Bazar.
Meanwhile, the second phase of the works will also continue with the help of
dredgers, the sources said.
Not only that, the local administration has received an allegation that the contractor in the name of filling Sabrang Tourism Park is lifting sand  and selling it outside in the open market.
Md Mahbubur Rahman, Deputy Secretary and Project Director (PD) of  Sabrang Tourism Park in Cox's Bazar denied the allegation of selling sand outside.
 A mobile court fined contractor CHEC Tk 2.5 lakh for lifting sand illegally last month. The company lifted sand in the name of Sabrang Tourism Park in Teknaf Upazila of Cox's Bazar.  
Erfanul Haque Chowdhury said an official of CHEC was fined Tk 2. 5 lakh and awarded three months imprisonment for non-payment.
The tourist jetty on Shah Pori Island, the WDB embankment, border roads and other facilities are at risk.  There were allegations that CHEC was illegally selling and filling sand by unplanned extraction.
The fine was imposed after raid in the Sabrang Tourism Park area of the economic zone last month. The campaign was led by the Upazila Assistant Commissioner (Land) and Executive Magistrate Erfanul Haque Chowdhury.
Mamunur Rashid Deputy Commissioner of Rashid Cox's Bazar told the Daily Observer, "A fine has been levied on the China Harbour on the basis of specific allegations of selling of sand extracted for land filling purpose."
According to the documents, on December 23 last year, Prabir Kumar Goswami, the then executive engineer of Cox's Bazar in WDB, blocked CHEC from setting up dredger pipes.
He also informed the top officials of WDB in writing as the sand mining has not stopped. To maintain the quality of work, the contractor is advised to install dredging pipes under the Shah Pori Island embankment.
Without taking any initiative in that regard, the pipeline was laid over the embankment. Instead, the contractors began to influence the WDB authorities to install these pipes.
Eventually, the site was inspected by Cox's Bazar Deputy Commissioner Mamunur Rashid, Additional Deputy Commissioner Revenue, representatives of BEJA authorities and WDB officials. Later, the then Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources Rokon Ud-Daula and BEJA Executive Member (Additional Secretary) Abdul Azim Chowdhury also visited the area.
The WDB was warned more than once from the field about the future erosion trend in the area. Even after this, the contractor continued to extract sand. Now the controversial contractor is also selling the sand after dredging.
Thousands of people of Shah Pori Island formed human chain, demanding a stop to sand lifting and the Prime Minister's intervention on December 16 in this regard last year. But sand mining did not stop. No clearance from the Department of Environment was taken to extract sand.
Tanjir Saif Ahmed, Executive Engineer of WDB Cox's Bazar, said, "We have no information about the second phase of the dredging works."
Kabir Bin Anwar, the Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources did not respond to our phone calls.