Irrigation water crisis in barind: Small farmers in a vicious trap
The deep tube-well of Issoripur village in Godagari upazila. Amid lax monitoring by the authorities, many deep tube-well operators have been depriving small farmers in Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj and Naogaon of their fair share of water for irrigation. Those operators delay releasing water from their pumps, which leads to frequent crop loss for the farmers. Thrown in a situation they simply cannot cope with, the farmers are then forced into selling their land or leasing out land to others. Many of them leave farming for good and become day labourers to survive. In many cases, the tube-well operators, who have money and political connections, buy those land or take them on lease to grow their own crops, The Daily Star has learnt after talking to several such farmers as well as experts and development activists in the Barind region. On the other hand, the well-off farmers, who pay the operators extra money, are supplied with the irrigation water on time, they also said. On Wednesday, two