Residents and activists along Bangladesh’s Teesta River lit torches on Thursday evening (October 16) to demand immediate implementation of the long-stalled Teesta Master Plan under the Interim Government, as communities continue to lose homes and farmland to severe river erosion.

The demonstrations, organized by the Teesta River Protection Movement Committee, took place along the riverbanks near the Teesta Barrage area spanning Nilphamari and Lalmonirhat districts. The program was led by Barrister Hasan Rajib Pradhan, a central executive member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

Locals said repeated promises by successive governments have failed to prevent the river’s relentless erosion. “I’ve lost my home five times to the Teesta,” said Jahurul Islam of Burirhat in Kurigram’s Rajarhat subdistrict. “We’ve been hearing for years that the Teesta Master Plan will be implemented, but nothing has happened. This time, we want the interim government to finally start it.”

Speakers at the rally—including district and upazila coordinators of the Teesta River Protection Movement—warned that hundreds of families lose land and livelihoods every year as the river devours new areas. “The Teesta Master Plan must begin now. People of the Teesta belt cannot wait any longer,” said Mostafizar Rahman Mostafa, the movement’s Kurigram district convenor.

The event was inaugurated earlier at the Kakina Point in Lalmonirhat by the movement’s chief coordinator, former deputy minister and BNP organizing secretary Principal Asadul Habib Dulu. He called for the official launch of the megaproject by November.

“The people’s united stance for the river shows that Teesta is no longer just an environmental or economic issue. It’s a matter of survival,” Dulu said. “The government must act before a famine strikes the north. People may be forced to march to the capital in search of food in the near future if the masterplan is not implemented.”