FERSF delegation visits erosion-affected site of Nawkata under Sadiya LAC

 A CORRESPONDENT

DOOMDOOMA: A delegation of Flood Erosion Resistance Struggle Forum (FERSF), Dibrugarh and Tinsukia district led by president Binod Kedia, vice president Bhobas Upadhyay and media advisor Santanu Goswami visited the severe river bank erosion affected site of Nawkata under Sadiya LAC on Sunday. Although the Water Resource Department(WRD) personnel were seen engaging themselves in taking measures on war footing to resist the erosion, yet it is a matter of deep concern that due to morphological changes the Dibang river had changed its course in the year 2021 and started engulfing the entire river bank of Brahmaputra from Hatighulee to Dibrugarh town.

In the past, several projects were taken up to restore the river bank but in vain. So FERSF, Dibrugarh and Tinsukia district are of the opinion that without reverting the course of Dibang River to its original course, it would not be possible to control the erosion upto Dibrugarh town and the situation would become more critical day by day and in the process, it would cause heavy damage. The Department of Water Resource this year had tried to revert the Dibang river by dragging the drain at a high place instead of its previous original course. As it is now not in a position to complete the work before monsoon, so no results could be expected.

The FERSF, therefore, requested the Chief Minister and Water Resource Department (WRD) Minister to instruct the concerned department to rever to the previous original course of Dibang as soon as possible. “It will be the able to minimize the discharge of Brahmaputra river and would be able to control the erosion,” they said.

On contacting noted river expert and the former Professor of Applied Geology, Dibrugarh University Dr Jogen Sarmah, he said, “The idea of relocating the previous (pre 1995 ) course of the Lohit along with its tributary, the Dibong would have solved the problem of erosion in that locality. In order to achieve this, large scale dredging has to be done to restore the previous course of the Lohit by the North of Dibru Reserve Forest. The feasibility of this work will have to be assessed by the Water Resource Department (WRD).

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