The Problem of Rivers

The author was born in 1891 in the village Tagarbando, situated between the Barasia and Madhumati rivers (Fig. 11) in Jessore District. As a boy, he had seen steamers plying on the Barasia. With the deterioration of the Barasia, the steamers used the Madhumati. West of Tagarbando, the Nabaganga was connected with the Madhumati by the Lohagara Nadi. On the Lohagara Nadi silting up, the Nabaganga and the Madhumati were connected up by the Hahfax Cut about the year 1906; as a result, the Garai-Madhumati waters flowed through the Halifax Cut and found their way into the Bhairab at Khulna and thence through the Rupsa and Pusur into the Bay of Bengal, so that the Bhairab-Rupsa-Pusur became a deeper and straighter river. In recent years, upland water, instead of flowing through the Garai-Madhumati, is being increasingly diverted through the Padma. The reduction of flow through the Garai-Madhumati river system has started deterioration of their channels, so that steamers can no longer ply on the Madhumati.