Citizen and the civic body have joined hands on how to protect Banka, a small river that passes through Burdwan town.
Like many river systems, Banka also has badly been affected by the human activities ~ perpendicularly or horizontally, as the morpho- logical adjustment of river channels have been affected with the fast growing development of urbanization with in the river catchment areas.
The Banka has suffered the brunt of unplanned urbanisation and the river is one of
the most severely polluted rivers in Bengal.
The hydraulic geometry of the Banka river in Burdwan town, according to citizens and the Burdwan Municipality, needs to be taken into account for serious observation using spatial interpolation technique.
A research work on the river, incidentally, had revealed that Banka has recorded sud- den increases in its channel width upto 21 per cent against an increase in its depth by 17 per cent within the Burdwan urban area.
The research by Abhay Sankar Sahu of Kalyani Uni- versity and Suvendu Roy of a
Chandernagore-based col- lege revealed that Banka’s carrying capacity has increased by 45 per cent within the urban area due to increased discharge by the linkages of the river with the Left Bank Main Canal of the Damodar Valley Corporation canal, besides the added flow of waste water drainage system.
“The impermeable urban surface in the down line of the town has also caused a rapid increase in runoff generation resulting in increased width of the river by 36 per cent,” the research report stated.
The 125 km-long Banka originated from Ramgopalpur village in Galsi block and
meets the Bhagirathi in Kalna. The British used this as an source of drinking water and river transportation.
Paresh Sarkar, chairman of Burdwan Municipality said: “We need to act immediate- ly to save the river for the sake of sustainability of this increas- ing urban conglomeration.”
The Paschimbanga Bij- nan Mancha has partnered with the citizens to give a wake up call to the government for Banka.
Tusharkanti Batabyal, district president of the Mancha, said: “If the government fails to restore the fate of the river, Burdwan town would face a disastrous fate.”