Ministers, government officials, experts and climate activists expressed their firm determination that they are ready to do everything necessary for saving the country’s rivers from pollution and illegal occupation. The government sees river grabbers as criminals, says State Minister for Shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury. The two-day National River Conference-2024 that concludes in the capital on Sunday (26 May) has formulated a two-year action plan to combat pollution and illegal encroachment on the endangered rivers.
The minister says the political identity of encroachers, be it Awami League, BNP or Jatiya Party, bears no significance to the government. The current establishment has a zero tolerance stance against all river grabbers. Syeda Rizwana Hasan, Chief Executive of BELA, says 229 rivers are endangered across eight divisions in the country.
The country has some 405 rivers and 57 trans-boundary rivers flowing through Bangladesh. Around 77 rivers have totally disappeared from the map of Bangladesh, with their beds serving as croplands. And now 229 other rivers have been damaged in one way or the other by grabbers and polluters. We cannot protect the country, climate and the people of river basins if we fail to save our rivers from grabbing and pollution, as death is inevitable if the veins of a human body are damaged. For this, we should devote ourselves to save the rivers.
About 93 percent sources of the country’s rivers are from outside Bangladesh. These rivers carry 3.8 billion tonnes silt on their way to sea.
229 rivers are
endangered across
eight divisions in the country
Of them, 40 to 45 million tonnes of silt have been stored in river ways. Thus, some islands surfaced in the sea during the last four years. Like this, many islands have surfaced.
Currently the length of internal river routes of the country is 6,000 kilometres during the monsoon and 4,000 kilometres in the dry season. About 1,620 km of river routes have totally disappeared and the farmers are now cultivating crops on these lands.
Besides, due to climate change and different natural and man-made problems, the country’s rivers and water bodies are being polluted every day. Four years back, the National River Conservation Commission had identified over 57390 powerful individuals, businesses establishments and institutions as river grabbers across the country. And, the list of river grabbers across the country was also uploaded to the NRCC website for people as per a High Court order.
Later, the city corporations, district administration and the Bangladesh Inland Transport Authority jointly conducted eviction drives several times against illegal structures built on the banks of rivers initially across the country. They had evicted some 18589 illegal grabbers from the rivers until the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic.
As soon as the drive came to a halt due the pandemic, the influential along with their hoodlums again started grabbing the rivers under the very nose of the authorities concerned. River grabbing by some group of influential vested quarters has not fully ceased while other groups are polluting waters in many ways.
Biodiversity, river water and the environment are also being polluted and destroyed gradually. Protection of the country’s rivers is a must to save the country.
Preventing river encroachment requires more than just laws. A stronger public outcry is necessary. We call for a law to protect rivers, along with increased legal power, scope, and manpower for the NRCC as per the court order.
The authorities concerned face myriad of problems in freeing the river from grabbers. They cannot easily handle the greed of grabbers.
Protecting rivers should be a top government priority as it has enacted new laws on sand and soil management. It is urgently needed to devise strategic collaboration with all stakeholders and community engagement to prevent and address river encroachment effectively.
Country’s agriculture and rural economy are dependent on rivers, canals, haors and other water bodies, contributing to the overall economic development of the country. It is very unfortunate that like other resources the influential people continued looting country’s rivers and other wetlands.Now time has come for us to recover the lost rivers to protect our environment at any cost. The nation could enjoy the benefits of rivers if they are alive.