The river Meghna

Bangladesh is a riverine ever green country located in South Asia. The pride of Bangladesh is its rivers with one of the largest networks in the world with a total number of about 700 rivers including tributaries, which have a total length of about 24,140 kilometer. The life and livelihood of the millions of people of Bangladesh have been revolving around these rivers over the ages.

The Meghna is one of the major rivers of Bangladesh. With other two mighty Himalayan Rivers: the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, the Meghna makes Bangladesh the world largest delta. It is the longest, widest and deepest river of Bangladesh. The Barak river of Assam originates from Naga-Manipur region and being divided into two branches as Surma and Kushiyara. Enter into Sylhet district of Bangladesh Surma the northern branch, flows towards west by the side of Sylhet Chhatak amd Sunamganj. The Surma of north sylhet, the Kushiyara of South Sylhet, the Kalni of Habigangj meet together near Ajmiriganj. Then the combined stream of Kalani, The Surma and the kushiyara after flowing some distance to the south of Bhairab Bazar of Kishiorgong district and flowing to the southwest it meets the padma near Chandpur and ultimately falls into the Bay of Bengal as Meghna drains an area of about 29.875 square kilometers. Monu, baulai, Titas, gumti, are the tributaries of Meghna.

Meghna has two distinct parts. Upper Meghna from Bhairab Bazar to Shaitnol is comparatively a small river. Lower Meghna below Shaitnol is one of the largest rivers in the world, because it is the mouth of Ganges-Padma and Brahmaputra-Jamuna rivers. It is a tidal reach carrying almost the entire fluvial discharge of Ganges, Brahmaputra and Upper Meghna River. The net discharge through this river varies from 10,000 cumec in the dry season to 160,000 cumec in the wet season. A little above the confluence, Meghna has a railway bridge over it. The width of the river there is three quarters of a kilometer. Several small channels branch out from Meghna, meander through the low land bordering the marginal tippera surface, fed by a number of hill streams and rejoin the main river downstream. The most important of these offshoots is Titas, which takes off south of Chatalpar and after meandering through two long-bends, extending over 240 km rejoins the Meghna through two channels in nabinagar upazila. It receives the Howrah hill stream near Akhaura. Brahmanbaria and Akhaura are both on the banks of this river. Other offshoots of the Meghna are Pagli, Katalia, Dhanagoda, Matlab and Udhamdi. Meghna and these offshoots receive the waters of a number of streams from Tripura Hills including gumti, Howrah, Kagni, Senai Buri, Hari, Mangal, Kakri, Pagli, Kurulia, Balujuri, Sonaichhari, Handachhora, Jangalia and Durduria. All of these are liable to flash floods, but Gumti, Kakri and Howrah are the major ones. They have silted their beds to the extent that they now flow above the mean level of the land when brimful. Embankments have been built to contain them. Every other year one or the other of these streams overflow and cause considerable damage to crops, livestock and houses.

A larger number of settlements, towns, ports and industries have sprung up on both the banks of the Meghna. Narsingdi, Chandpur, Barisal and Bhola are the district towns that stand on the banks of the Meghna. Kuliarchar, Bhairab Bazar, Chandpur, Ramdaspur, Kalupur and Daulatkhan are important riverports and business centres. The Ashuganj thermal power plant and the Fenchuganj fertiliser factory are located on the banks of this river.

The Meghna is a flood-prone river. The Bangladesh water development board has implemented the Meghna Valley Project and constructed embankments along the riverbanks. These embankments are protecting greater Sylhet, Mymensingh and Comilla districts from floods. By constructing dams at different places a total of 180,000 hector of land has been brought under irrigation. About 125 km of dams have been constructed in the southern region of Bangladesh under the coastal embankment project. These are helping to control floods and keep salinity off. Considering all rivers are the lives of Bangladesh. If river is alive Bangladesh will be alive with her indescribable beauty.