Encroachment and Filling Push Sylhet's Kushigang River Into Crisis: A Narrow Channel in the Dry Season

The Kushigang was once one of the most important waterways for communication and trade in north-eastern Sylhet. That river is now in a severe existential crisis, its course narrowed in places by encroachment and filling.

The Kushigang originates in the haor wetlands of the Haripur area of Sylhet's Jaintapur upazila. From there it travels about 38 kilometres before joining the Surma River at the Kushighat area of Sylhet city.

The river is important for agriculture, irrigation and protecting local biodiversity. Yet encroachment and filling have caused it to lose its natural flow in many places.

The river holds some water in the rainy season, but in the dry season most of the Kushigang turns into a narrow channel. The lack of water has also affected life along its banks.

Fishermen's boats lie idle on the dried-up riverbed. In some places, vegetables are being cultivated across the riverbed itself, spilling over both banks.

Photographs taken recently in the Kushighat area of Sylhet city capture this shrunken state of the river.