Bhasan Char Island is a green island in the middle of the sea. It is a planned town with rows of square houses with red roofs and white multi-storied buildings. When you hear the name Bhasan Char, you may visualize a picture of sand, but it is not that. Bhasan Char is an island or char forming in the Bay of Bengal. It is one of the newly formed pastures in that region. This char consists of Thengarchar and Jaliarchar. Bhasan Char is a newly formed small island in the estuary of the Meghna River and the Bay of Bengal under Char Ishwar Union of Hatiya Upazila of Noakhali district, Bangladesh. The island or Char is only 20 years old.
Before describing the way to go to Bhasan Char, you need to know about Bhasan Char. Here are short descriptions of the area, location, population, background, and communication system of Bhasan Char.
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Bhasan Char Area
According to the information of the forest department of Noakhali district, the total area of Bhasan Char is 16,000 acres. Out of the total area, Jaliarchar area is 6,000 acres and Thengarchar area is 10,000 acres. Its distance from Hatiya Upazila is 13.2 nautical miles. Bhasan Char’s length is 8 kilometers and width is 4.5 kilometres.
Bhasan Char Location
Bhasan Char is located about 80-km away from Noakhali district headquarters and about 50-km from coastal Subarnachar Upazila, 5-km west from the western edge of Chittagong’s Sandwip Upazila and 25 km east from Hatiya Upazila headquarters. Bhasan Char was isolated and uninhabited. It arose about 20 years ago at the estuary of the Meghna River and the Bay of Bengal. It has been a safe haven for bandits and pirates. Bandits and pirates have gradually moved away from the area since the Bangladesh Navy started building infrastructure to rehabilitate the Rohingya, the displaced Myanmar nationals.
Naming of Bhasan Char Island
Bhasan Char basically consists of two chars – Thengarchar and Jaliarchar. Much confusion has arisen regarding its name due to the location of the two chars side by side. Locals were divided into two groups by the name of the char. At one point, everyone was talking about naming the two chars as ‘Charpriya’. However, former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina recently named the char as ‘Bhasan Char’ and no one disagreed.
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Bhasan Char Population
Rohingya citizens of Myanmar started coming to Bangladesh in large numbers since August 2017. According to sources in the Office of the Commissioner for Refugee Relief and Repatriation, biometric registration of Rohingyas has been done till June 2018. The number of Rohingyas staying in Bangladesh is 10,97,771. Of them, males are 48 percent and females are 52 percent. Besides, there are 55 percent children, 36,373 orphans. As of May 2022, the Bangladesh government has relocated around 28,000 Rohingya refugees to Bhasan Char.
Why Bhasan Char so popular
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas moved to Bangladesh after being persecuted in Myanmar in the last few decades. Rohingya refugees flocked to the Bangladesh border in August 2017 when Myanmar’s army began mass killings and arson in villages in Rakhine.
The world’s largest refugee camp has been built in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, to refuge these Rohingyas. With the help of various international organizations led by the United Nations, the Bangladesh government has been trying to meet the urgent needs of the citizens of Myanmar.
According to the calculations of the Government’s Refugee Relief and Repatriation Office, about 860,000 Rohingyas are now living in those camps in Cox’s Bazar on approximately 6,500 acres of land.
A total of 30,000-40,000 people have to live there in some parts per square kilometer. As they have to live a human wage life in these dense settlements, various social problems are created locally with the Rohingyas. That’s why the government plans to relocate a part of them. Under the circumstances, Bhasan Char in the Meghna estuary near Hatiya was chosen.
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How changed Bhasan Char radically
The Bangladesh Navy has radically changed the face of Bhasan Char in the last three years. The Bangladesh government adopted a project in November 2017 to evacuate one lakh Rohingya from Cox’s Bazar to Bhasan Char. With the government’s funding at the cost of Tk2,312 crore, the infrastructure of 120 cluster villages has been built in Bhasan Char with an area of approximately 16,000 acres to accommodate more than one lakh people. A total of 1,440 one-story buildings have been constructed here to accommodate the Rohingyas.
Each house has 16 rooms – 8 at the front and another 8 at the back. Each room of 12×14 feet should accommodate at least four members of a family. Each family is allotted one stove for cooking. And for every 8 rooms, there are three toilets and two bathrooms. There is a water supply in the kitchen, bathroom and toilet.
Besides, there is one pond in each cluster. The depth of these ponds is 10 feet. The water in these ponds can be used for domestic purposes. Also, 120 four-storied shelters have been constructed for use during cyclones. Each cluster is constructed in the same pattern. All the houses look the same. The width of these roads is 20 to 25 feet.
Duck, chicken, pigeon, fish, fruit, and crop farms have been piloted in the project area under the supervision of the Bangladesh Navy. Dairy farming, paddy and vegetable cultivation, handicrafts, tailoring for women, and tourism projects have also been undertaken to boost local economic activities. As per the decision of the National Task Force on Rohingya, two four-storied educational institutions have been constructed. Two fuel tanks with a capacity of 250 tonnes have been completed for fuel supply. This type of road is not usually seen in any village in Bangladesh.
In this case, the standards of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) have been followed. As a result, not only for the Rohingya shelter but also because of the aesthetics scenario, immense tourism potential has been created here. In the project, one lighthouse with a height of 91.5 feet and a navigation capacity of 14 nautical miles has been constructed. Fire-fighting equipment has been installed in the barrack houses. The ponds constructed in each cluster can be used for water and firefighting purposes. Apart from this, one acre of land has been earmarked for a permanent fire station in the project area.
Apart from this, each barrack house in the project has an individual solar power system. Each shelter is powered by a separate solar cell with a capacity of 5-KW. Using it, each shelter station can be lighted as well as water can be pumped using solar pumps. For the management of human waste, there are plans to build septic tanks and soakwells in the project, said the concerned.
It also has adequate arrangement for the physical and mental development of children of displaced Myanmar nationals. There are two playgrounds for their sports. Apart from this, each cluster has small scale sports facilities. There are two mosques, two 20-bed hospitals and four community clinics. Necessary space is kept for cremation and burial in case of death of any resident.
In the first phase of relocation to Bhasan Char, 600 Rohingya families were taken there. A temporary transit point was set up at the Ukhiya College grounds to take the Rohingyas willing to go voluntarily from the Ukhiya-Teknaf 34 camps in Cox’s Bazar to Bhasan Char.
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Is Bhasan Char better than Cox’s Bazar camp?
Those concerned with the project have been saying that the Rohingyas will get a relatively better standard of living after shifting from Cox’s Bazar to Bhasan Char. According to the summary of the Asharyan-3 project, houses made of bamboo and tarpaulins in the camps of Cox’s Bazar are very vulnerable to natural calamities. But the cluster built at Bhasan Char is much more secure.
Teknaf camps have one toilet for 20 people and one shower room for 80 people. On the other hand, Bhasan Char has one toilet for 11 people and one bath for 16 people. As Teknaf is densely populated, the water level there is going down day by day. There is a shortage of fresh groundwater but Bhasan Char has abundant fresh water supply.
There is no electricity in the camps of Cox’s Bazar. Some roads have streetlights. But as most of the areas are in darkness, crime also happens at night. On the other hand, there is adequate lighting in Bhasan Char. The camps in Teknaf are home to many Rohingya and lack the necessary infrastructure, making it difficult to reach everyone. But there is no problem in Bhasan Char.
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Police Station
Considering the security issue here, the government has finally established a police station in Bhasan Char. On October 21, 2019, a proposal to establish Bhasan Char Police Station was approved in the high official meeting of the government.
4G Network
Three mobile phone companies, including the government company Teletalk, already have 4G networks in the area. All mobile company networks are also available.
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Luxurious house in Bhasan Char
After entering Bhasan Char, a beautiful house will be visible to everyone. This house has been built for the President, Prime Minister, Ministers and high-ranking military-civilian officials. When they come to visit Bhasan Char, they can rest in that house. There are separate rooms for the Prime Minister and the President. No one below the Navy Chief can stay here.
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Communication System
Bhasan Char is surrounded by a nine-foot-high embankment to protect it from tides. It takes two and a half to three hours to reach Thengarchar from Hatiya by fishing boat. The place is prone to cyclones and floods. The transportation system is also fragile. However, platoons have already been installed to facilitate naval communication with char. A helipad has been constructed for helicopter landing. Navy personnel are responsible for providing security. The Bhasan Char has been raised by throwing sand at various places to protect it from the tides. Roads were constructed for internal traffic.
How to go to Bhasan Char
The journey to Bhasan Char is not easy. To visit Bhasan Char, you have to go to Chittagong by air, bus or train from Dhaka. From there, you have to go to Bhasan Char by ship.
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Final Words
Bhasan Char is now famous for Rohigya relocations. There are many comments in favour of the relocation of Rohigyas here. There is also so much criticism regarding its geographical position. A good number of NGOs work in Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar but there is no option, so far, for NGOs to work at Bhasan Char. NGOs are also not interested in moving to Bhasan Char to work in its remote location. The communication system is not satisfactory. However, Bhasan Char has become a very interesting tourist spot in Bangladesh.
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