Md Mizanur Rahman, Kurigram

Nearly 20,000 people in the three unions of Nunkhawa, Kanchakata and Bamandanga in Nageshwari Upazila of Kurigram had no means of communication.

For centuries, they had to travel on foot through the sand of the arable land and char during the dry season and during the rainy season, boats and banana rickshaws were their only means of communication.

In response to the long-standing demands of the local people, RDRS Bangladesh, with the support of the World Food Programme, has provided communication facilities to these people by constructing about 10.5 km of roads and embankments.

Tamez Ali, a permanent resident of Nunkhawa Union, said that since birth, we have been traveling through human cultivated land and sand, and we are very happy to have found a road.

Aminul from Kanchakata Union said that we will be able to easily go to the market and do business through this road.

Karim of Bamandanga Union said that the road will make it easier for school students and dying patients in the Char area to reach the hospital quickly.

Tapan Kumar Saha, Coordinator Emergency and Humanitarian Response, RDRS Bangladesh, Kurigram, said that the road and dam will solve the communication problem on one hand and protect cropland during floods in the char area.

Nageshwari UNO Sibbir Ahmed said, about 10.5 -km of roads and embankments have been constructed in 3 unions of our Nageshwari Upazila with the assistance of the World Food Programme through RDRS Bangladesh. This will help in improving the communication system and improving the living conditions of the people of this Upazila.

The people of the char areas of Kurigram hope that the World Food Programme and RDRS Bangladesh will build such roads in the future where there is no communication system.