DHAKA: A 100-year-old boat market in Bangladesh’s Manikganj district has become the only resort for thousands of villagers looking to purchase a boat ahead of the monsoon season.
The vessels serve as the only medium of travel for more than one million residents of Manikganj and adjacent districts.
Every Wednesday, hundreds of people from Manikganj, Tangail, Sirajganj, Faridpur and Dhaka fill the market, located along the banks of the Dhaleswari river.
“The boat market remains open for five months during the monsoon season. I have been visiting this market since my early childhood with my father,” Jagadish Chandra Sarker, a 70-year-old tea vendor, told Arab News.
“On market days, the traders remain busy throughout the day,” Sarker added.
Bangladesh is surrounded by the Padma, Jamuna, Dhaleswari, Ichhamati and Kaliganga rivers, a resource which becomes problematic during the monsoon season when floodwaters inundate the low-lying villages of the country, disrupting life and communication for thousands of villagers.
Every family is compelled to purchase at least one boat.
“This boat market has earned a huge goodwill for its craftsmanship. Even traders from some adjacent districts like Tangail, Sirajganj and Saver visit regularly,” Gouranga Kumar Ghosh, the operator of the market, said.
On any given day, traders sell around 100 boats, Ghosh added.
The average length of the boats is between 15 and 20 feet, while the prices varies from $25 to $100, depending on the quality and size of the vessel.
“On average, our boats last for two seasons. But they serve more if properly coated with coal tar," Abdul Halim, a market trader, told Arab News.
Like Halim, other traders manufacture boats at stations in their homes, which they then deliver to the market through trucks, rickshaw vans or horse carts.
It takes a day for a carpenter to make a small boat, Halim said.
“With this seasonal boat trading, I earn a handsome amount during the monsoons. On an average, I earn around $200 per month from boat trading,” Halim said.
“I bought a new boat for my family for $35. It seemed that the price is little higher than the previous year,” Abdur Rahman, a 47-year-old buyer from Shibpur, Manikganj told said.
Solaiman Sheikh, 37, another buyer from the Savar district said he was happy with his latest purchase.
“I have been visiting this boat market once a year for the past nine years. Since, during monsoons, I have no other choice for commuting except by boat, I prefer a new boat every year. Safety is the first concern as my little boys also travel with me,” Sheikh said.
Monsoon threat forces Bangladeshis to flood traditional boat market
Monsoon threat forces Bangladeshis to flood traditional boat market
- Bangladesh is surrounded by the Padma, Jamuna, Dhaleswari, Ichhamati and Kaliganga rivers, a resource which becomes problematic during the monsoon season
- The average length of the boats is between 15 and 20 feet, while the prices varies from $25 to $100, depending on the quality and size of the vessel
Myanmar, Afghan hopeful scholars mourn UK study visa ban
- Myanmar, Afghanistan, Sudan and Cameroon citizens will be barred from obtaining university visas
- Britain’s travel block is “really painful” for Afghan women hoping to escape to an education abroad, said one female
YANGON, Myanmar: Aspiring students are lamenting Britain’s ban on education visas for their war-weary countries — dashing dreams of bettering themselves and their home nations.
Myanmar, Afghanistan, Sudan and Cameroon citizens will be barred from obtaining university visas, London announced this week, saying asylum applications by visiting students had “rocketed” nearly 500 percent from 2021 to 2025.
“It’s like the country is punishing the weak, the most vulnerable people,” said one woman from Myanmar.
She was preparing for a scholarship interview for a master’s in climate change finance when her plans were upended by Downing Street’s decree on Wednesday.
“I could not focus the whole morning,” the 28-year-old told AFP from Yangon, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons in a country riven by civil war since a 2021 military coup.
“I can’t picture my future.”
Like in much of the developed world, immigration has become a divisive issue in Britain.
Efforts to beat back arrivals mirror the sweeping travel bans issued by US President Donald Trump which have shut out citizens of Myanmar, Sudan and Afghanistan.
Since the chaotic military withdrawal of Britain, the United States and other NATO nations in 2021, Afghanistan has been ruled by a resurgent Taliban government which has banned women over age 12 from attending school.
Britain’s travel block is “really painful” for Afghan women hoping to escape to an education abroad, said one female child social worker in Ghazni province, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons.
She has now canceled her plans to study for a master’s in both the US and the UK.
“Now I am trying to be hopeful, but I think it would also be a mistake,” said the 27-year-old.
In the summer of 2024, Arefa Mohammadi fled to neighboring Pakistan, living in limbo as she applied to universities.
She got an offer to study public health in England but now cannot accept it.
“It was truly shocking for me,” said the 24-year-old.
“This situation put me in a place where I haven’t any goals, because all my goals and all my futures are unpredictable.”
- ‘Cruel and short-sighted’ -
In Kabul, a 39-year-old man faces similar heartbreak.
He was accepted to study specialist subjects related to water management at three universities in England and Scotland.
“When I was a child I witnessed several challenges like flash floods, water scarcity, environmental neglect, inefficient irrigation systems,” he said, asking to remain anonymous for security reasons. “To address these challenges I made my application.”
“I hoped to acquire modern knowledge. It’s impossible to acquire in Afghanistan,” he added.
Some 33 million people in the country face severe water shortages, aid agencies say, a result of compounding multi-year droughts, climate change and infrastructure battered by decades of war.
Britain’s Labour government made the decision to curb visas as the right-wing Reform UK party surges in opinion polls with its hard-line stance against immigration.
The UK Home Office said almost 135,000 asylum seekers had entered the country through legal routes since 2021.
Activist organization Burma Campaign UK called the visa ban “exceptionally cruel and shortsighted.”
“The opportunity to come to the UK to study is life-changing for the individual student but also an investment in the future of Myanmar,” said program director Zoya Phan in a statement.
One exiled Myanmar journalist has been living over the border in Thailand after escaping the military rule which has clamped down on press freedoms.
“When the military coup happened I was just 22, so I had a lot of dreams,” she said. “But over the past five years there have been a lot of struggles — I couldn’t complete my dreams.”
Every year since the junta takeover she applied for further education to buoy her spirits.
But she received an email Thursday morning canceling her place to study for a master’s at a London university.
“Everything is gone,” she said. “My UK dream is all disappeared.”
