Dredging and Bank Protection along the Bank of the Padma River in Bangladesh: A Model Analysis

Author Name : Muhammad Sanaullah

ABSTRACT

The river dredging project aims at reducing the risk of flooding through the river bank. River slope protection criteria is to be addressed properly for getting a formidable bank of any river. Blocking through cement concrete (cc), geotextile bags are main elements of protection of river bank. The Padma is one of the major rivers in Bangladesh. The Ganges basin is its main distributary. In terms of discharge annually, it is considered as the third largest river in the world. The study is based on collection of data for model analysis. From a vast area of the Padma river bank, the study restricts from Majhir Char to Moksedpur via Narishabazar at Dohar Upazill a under Dhaka District. The Padma River is sub-divided into two separate channels at the downstream of Goalounda and Dohar. Devastating bank erosion took place in 2018 and displaced 5000 families. The bank erosion along the Padma river is the phenomenon of the monsoon months specially May to October. The Padma river is very dynamic is nature. Several hundred meters of the bank are eroded per year. The post flood erosion is related to the effluent of ground water into the river. This study aims to evaluate river hydraulics and morphology with effects of proposed dredging river training works. There are number of studies are done to analyze the river characteristics of this river but modeling through necessary data are yet a gap to be studied. For this reason, an endeavour is made to study the dredging and bank protection work along the left bank of the Padma river taking a particular area into considerations.

Keywords: Dredging, River Training Works (RTW) River Morphology, Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), Bench Mark (BM), Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB).