Meghna River

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Meghna is the widest river among the rivers that flows inside the boundary of Bangladesh. At one point near Bhola, Meghna is 12 km wide! This river follows almost a straight line in its path. Despite its very calm and quiet look, this river is the cause of most deaths in rivers every year. The place near Chandpur is a very dangerous one and have claimed hudreds of lives in the last few years.

Course

River Meghna from the bridge over the river

The Meghna is formed inside Bangladesh near Bhairab Bazar by the combination of the streams of Surma, Kushiara, and other small rivers. This river is the widest in Bangladesh and one of the widest of the world. Downto Chandpur, Meghna is hydrographically referred as the Upper Meghna and mentioned as the Lower Meghna from Chandpur to further Down.

At Ghatalpur, the river Titas emerges from Meghna and after circling two large bends by 240 km, falls in Meghna again near the Nabinagar Upazila. Titas forms as a single stream but gets separated afterwards into two distinct stream which remain separate before re-joining Meghna.

At Bhairab Bazar, the old Brahmaputra falls in Meghna in its right bank, just before the joining of Padma. Meghna is reinforced by Dhaleshwari before Padma as well. When the brown and hazy water of the Padma mixes with the clear water of Meghna, the two streams does not mix up and flows in parallel downto the sea - making half of the river clear and the other half brown. This peculiarity of the river is always of great attraction for people.

In Daudkandi, Comilla, Meghna is joined by the great river Gomoti, created by the combination of many streams. This river reinforces Meghna a lot and increases the waterflow considerably. The pair of bridges over Meghna and Gomoty are two of the country's largest bridges.

At Chandpur, Meghna receives the combined flow of the Padma and Jamuna and moves down to the Bay of Bengal at an almost straight line. In the upper part, Meghna receives a lot of little hill streams, namely, Gumti, Howrah, Kagni, Senai Buri, Hari Mangal, Kakrai, Kurulia, Balujhuri, Shonaichhari and Durduria.

In her course of Chandpur to Bay of Bengal, Meghna creates and reinforces a number of little rivers including Pagli, Katalia, Dhonagoda, Matlab and Udhamodi. All of these rivers takes out from Meghna and joins her again at points downstream.

Near Muladi of Barisal district, the Safipur River is an offshoot of Meghna that creates one of the main rivers in South Bengal. 1.5 km wide, this river is one of the widest in the country as well.

Near Bhola, just before falling in the Bay of Bengal, the river divides into two main streams by the delta Bhola and separates the island from both sides of the mainland. The western stream is called Ilsha and the eastern one is called Bamni.

See also

• List of rivers in Bangladesh

     
     Waters of South Asia      
    

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