The drying up of the Brahmaputra River has triggered a severe navigability crisis in Kurigram, leaving thousands of passengers facing acute hardship as ferry services have remained largely suspended for nearly a month.
Every day, thousands of people depend on river routes to travel to the district town for work, healthcare, court matters and other necessities. However, years of river erosion have caused sand and silt to accumulate on the riverbed, drastically reducing water depth.
Small sandbars have emerged across the river, obstructing navigation and forcing boats to slow down or stop altogether.
Char-based border upazilas Rowmari and Rajibpur have effectively been cut off from Kurigram district headquarters, with river routes being the main mode of transport.
The waterway distance from Rowmari and Rajibpur to Chilmari is about 25 kilometres, while the distance from Kurigram to the Rowmari and Rajibpur ghats is around 35 kilometres.
Boatmen are now forced to push and pull vessels along the shallow stretches, turning journeys that once took one to one-and-a-half hours into three to four hours.
As a result, boat movement has been disrupted along several routes, including Kurigram ghat, Chilmari river port, Fakirer Hat, Rowmari launch ghat, Kartimari, Baldamara, Ghughumari, Kheoyarchar, Rajibpur launch ghat, Mohanganj, Kondalkati and Noyarchar.
Passengers and boat operators have expressed frustration that despite the presence of dredging machinery, no effective initiative has been taken by the authorities to address the crisis over the past month.
A visit to the Foluarchar launch ghat at around 10:30am on 21 December showed that sand accumulation across the riverbed has severely hampered the movement of passenger and cargo boats.
Due to the falling water level, reaching Chilmari, Fakirer Hat and Kurigram from Foluarchar and Baldamara ghats has become an ordeal, with boats navigating narrow, winding channels of shallow water.
Boat journeys from various ghats in Rowmari to Chilmari now take almost double the previous time, while vessels frequently get stuck on sandbars, increasing risks to passengers’ safety.
Boatman Kawsar Ali said it now takes nearly three hours to reach Chilmari or Fakirer Hat from Foluarchar and Baldamara, compared with just one hour earlier.
“With less water, both time and cost have increased, and if a boat gets stuck mid-river, the whole day is lost and passengers suffer,” he said.
Another boatman, Jahangir Alam, said they used to reach Chilmari and Fakirer Hat within an hour from Baldamara ghat, but reduced water levels and newly formed chars have made the journey much longer.
Passenger Shahjahan Mia said he used to reach Kurigram court from Kartimari ghat by 10am, attend hearings and return home the same day.
“Now, even if I leave home early in the morning, it takes until noon to reach Kurigram due to the lack of water in the river,” he said, adding that people of Rowmari and Rajibpur are suffering badly.
Leaseholders of the ghats said their income has dropped sharply due to reduced boat movement, warning that without urgent dredging to restore navigability, river routes connecting Rowmari, Rajibpur, Chilmari, Fakirer Hat and Kurigram could be shut down entirely.
Chilmari River Port’s Port and Transport Officer Putul Roy said a letter has been sent to higher authorities seeking dredging of the river. She added that a meeting will be held soon and efforts are underway to address the navigability crisis.
