Design and contract documents for closing of the Madargong in Polder 5 in Khulna District

Abstract

The Madargong is located in Syamnagar Police Station of Satkhira Division, Khulna District. The closure of the Madargong was approved in 1975 to be executed as part of the Early Implementation Projects, under the Technical Assistance Programme of the Netherlands Government. The work was to be carried out by the Syamnagar SubDivision of the Bangladesh Water Development Board. However, the subseguent attempt to close the Madargong (1977-1978) failed, as was the case in 1970. It should be noted that these two closure attempts failed due to negligence and mismanagement of the Contractor. The 1978 attempt was done after having protected the river bed. The mattresses prevented scouring and another attempt could be made after the first failure. The introduction of bottom protection was done as a first phase of a Study regarding different closure methods suitable to be executed by manual labour. The methods are based on a combination of practices as used formerly in The Netherlands and those used locally at present. The methods should be applicable for closures of larger estuaries, The result of the study and a description of the conducted field experiments are given in three interim reports: "Study of Methods used for Closing Tidal Channels", Early Implementation Projects on Flood Control and Irrigation in Bangladesh, October 1976, August 1977 and August 1978. The report on the Chakamaya closure is still under preparation. It has been suggested to again take up the closure of the Madargong. Technical Assistance would then be provided under the Delta Development Project, while construction costs should be covered by funds originating from Early Implementation Projects. Haskoning has prepared this report, having received the assignment from the Netherlands Authorities to provide technical assistance concerning the closure component of the Delta Development Project. The closure will be designed as a vertical closure with gunny bags and mattresses, more or less similar to the Chakamaya closure, implemented in 1979