Erosion threatening Guimara’s existence
Prabal Kr Das
GUIMARA, Oct 31 – An ironic mix of uncertainty and good fortune is a feeling that men and women of the village have in common. Those living in Guimara are lucky that their settlement has so far survived the wrath of the Brahmaputra. But, they know not if and when the river would cause another spate of erosion threatening their lives and livelihood.
Bordering the south bank of the Brahmaputra, not far from Bijoynagar, residents of Guimara cannot rest easy. Even though serious erosion has not taken place for the last three years, any further erosion would imperil at least 3,000 families living in and around the settlement.
Already, in the last few decades, more than thirty villages have been lost to the river. According to local residents, a channel of the Brahmaputra has advanced nearly four kilometres south in the last dozen or so years, making it one of the most erosion-affected parts in the south bank.
Speaking at an interactive session with experts from International Centre for Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Aswini Goswami, a native of Guimara said that people in thousands have been displaced since the time large-scale erosion started.
“From 1954 onwards three embankments have failed to resist the river’s fury. One after the other they were worn away by surging waters,” Goswami remarked. The one that exists today, near Nahira is the fourth one, he added.
The rapid loss of agricultural land and living space has had debilitating effects on scores of families. A large number of people who were displaced used to lead lives of self-reliance. “Some of us only had to buy our salt and kerosene… food was plentiful,” said R Saloi, whose family saw 114 bigha of land disappear under water.
Today, many of the dislocated families have no permanent dwelling. Some breadwinners work as daily wage earners, while others live in dismal condition near an embankment.
Asked to rank their ‘vulnerability to erosion’ by ICIMOD personnel, community members mentioned lack of permanent measures to stop bank erosion. They said that unless well-planned and well-implemented interventions were in place they would live a threatened existence.
Speaking to The Assam Tribune, Stefan Kienberger of Centre for Geo-Informatics, University of Salzburg, said, “Changing flow of a channel of the Brahmaputra arising out of increased sedimentation could be a major reason for erosional activity near Guimara…”
He said that inputs from the local residents interfaced with other data, including satellite maps, would provide a more detailed understanding of flood and erosion caused by the Brahmaputra. Community feedback is taken into account in building measures to mitigate natural hazards in many parts of the world today, he noted.
Local residents who took part in the interactive session highlighted the fact that although the Government has started some work like the construction of spurs, the process was not transparent. Some of them complained that they were unaware about the funds so far spent on anti-erosion work.