Assam may seek Bangladesh's expertise to tackle flood, erosion

Assam might seek neighbouring country Bangladesh’s help in tackling flood and erosion problem, said state’s Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi. 

Gogoi said that since the problems faced by Assam with regard to erosion and recovery of eroded land were same as those faced by the neighbouring country, the state government might approach Bangladesh seeking its expertise in this field. 

Assam loses large swathes of land every year to river bank erosion and arresting the problem, besides recovering those lost lands, have becoming a challenging task for the state.

The chief minister said the experiment of using ‘geo-tubes’ in Dhakuakhana, situated in the north bank of river Brahmaputra, to arrest erosion has been successful and hence looks forward to using new technologies prevalent in other countries in tackling the flood and erosion problem of Assam. The two north bank districts of Dhemaji and North Lakhimpur face the maximum wrath of flood and erosion every year.  

As per government statistics, the state has lost nearly 7 per cent of its agricultural land due to erosion since 1950. 

Gogoi on Thursday had a detailed discussion with Jayati Chandra, Secretary of ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), regarding the flood and erosion problem of the state and ways and means of tackling it. 

He also said that the state government was interested in developing river Brahmaputra as a viable waterway for commercial movement of goods. Gogoi said the state government would develop the necessary infrastructure to “channelize” the river.  He said he would also take up the matter with the Brahmaputra Board and state’s water resource department.