Foreign crude company project costs hundreds of families their homes in Dhaka

Foreign crude company project costs hundreds of families their homes in Dhak
Dhaka/Bangladesh – More than 350 families living in the Moheshkhali sub-district, Dhaka, are living in unbearable conditions after being evicted from their homes and lands as a foreign company is eating up more lands for a crude transfer project.
In December 2016, the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) signed a deal with the China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Company Limited (CPPECL) to build a Single Point Mooring (SPM) as actual work started in May 2016.
The afflicted population of Moheshkhali have since been suffering, as many project victims reported that they had not received any eviction notice.
Even though they were promised better accommodations and farming lands, the eviction victims reported that they live in poor quality “colonies” with families crammed together in small places.
The authorities have compensated the farmers with lands that cannot be farmed, leaving them in limbo on how to provide for their families.
Despite promises to rehabilitate all those who were affected, residents voiced their dismay that “no rehabilitation has taken place until now.”
Most of the families were temporarily sheltered in colonies, rather than promised houses, with more than 15 individuals sharing the same facilities.
“I had almost 30 acres of land in the project site. My relatives and I had a home here. All the big leaders of Moheskhali and Cox’s Bazar promised that if we leave these lands for the government project, they would rehabilitate us. Nevertheless, no rehabilitation has taken place until now,” Shahabuddin said.
“In the east side, I had lots of lands. I used to cultivate Betal Leaf, Boro Paddy, etc. I made a nice house. I got only Tk.300,000 ]around $3,493]. After that nothing was given to me,” said an evicted resident.
“Some were given Tk. 50,000 [around $581] and some were given Tk 100,000 [around $1,163] with the promise of rehabilitation. They have placed us in this colony,” another told A24 News Agency.
According to environmentalist Dipak Sharma Dipu, the Chinese state-owned company, which operates in name of development, cuts through the only hilly island of Moheskhali.
Dipu said that they will strive to prevent any ‘developmental’ projects that evict families from their own land.