Dipankar Roy

Khulna city dwellers have been facing intense dust pollution for the last couple of years, as long stretches of roads and drains are being reconstructed under different development projects.

Only two years after the Tk 46.25 crore re-excavation project was taken for Bhadra river in Khulna’s Dumuria upazila, it has once again been filled with silt. According to Water Development Board (WDB) officials, the amount of silt deposited on the riverbed is higher in the southwestern region, Dumuria being one.

Nur Alom (47) was a substitute worker at a Khulna jute mill that shut down on July 1, 2020.

A major road of the city, unfit due to lack of maintenance for 12 years. Multiple complaints were made to the authorities but to no avail.

The massacre began at 11:00am and ended at 5:00pm. More than 10,000 people were killed by a platoon of Pakistani army, according to local historians.

A library of almost six decades, with a collection of 1,27,000 books. An average of 150 readers every day, intently studying with pin-drop silence in the spacious reading room.

The road on the west of Dumuria’s Baliakhali bridge had to be crossed through the mighty Hamkura on ferries. The road is still there. The river, however, is not.

Around 3:00pm, South Central Road of Khulna city  remains almost empty due to the scorching heat. However, an opposite scenario can be noticed on the footpath in front of Government Pioneer Women’s College. With a canopy overhead, vendors have set up iftar stalls. Of these stalls, “Nana Special Halim” continues to gather a large crowd.

Seeds of local varieties -- preserved by families for generations -- have been the most adaptive way of cultivation for the distinct climatic conditions of the country’s coastal areas.

A microphone used in Bangabandhu’s March 7 speech, indigenous weapons used in the resistance war, clothes and telephone sets used by freedom fighters, transmitters used in refugee camps, letter from then Prime Minister Tajuddin Ahmed to his wife on the white part of an empty cigarette box, which says, “Johra, if you can, join the seven and a half crore Bangalees.”

Mitu Sana, a homemaker from Gunari village at Khulna’s Dakop upazila, has to go to the Union Parishad pond -- far from her home -- to fetch drinking water.

Mitu Sana, a homemaker from Gunari village at Khulna’s Dakop upazila, has to go to the Union Parishad pond -- far from her home -- to fetch drinking water.

As many as 108 illegal housing projects have allegedly emerged in Khulna and adjacent areas -- on arable land, water bodies and tidal floodplain -- without any approval from Khulna Development Authority (KDA) and Department of Environment (DoE).

In May last year, 40-year-old Sunita Das, from Gatirgheri village of Khulna’s Koyra, lost her home to cyclone Yaas. More than 50 villages in Koyra were submerged, and around 45 metres of the flood control dam of Shakbaria river in Gatirgheri were washed away at the time.

Sitting in her narrow yard, Karuna Mandal was sorting watermelon seeds. Nearly a hundred plastic and earthen pots, wrapped in polyethene and full of different kinds of seeds, lay in front of her.

Nilufa Akhter is a 36-year-old single mother of two who lost her husband six years ago.

Unauthorised fishing of mother crabs, especially during the ongoing breeding season in different rivers and canals in the coastal areas adjacent to the Sundarbans has been going on unabated.

For a growing city of 1.7 million people, most of whom are constantly on the move, there are only 19 public toilets in Khulna.

Parimal Roy, a middle aged small trader, was sobbing beside Khulna city’s Rupsha Kitcken market. His complexion had turned pale, while some people were trying to console him. He simply kept repeating how all of his dreams had turned to ashes.

On Saturday, Khulna city’s Shibbari intersection was in utter chaos. It was a free-for-all, as vehicles only stopped when police officers jumped in front of them, risking their lives.