Save our rivers

In a welcome move the government has taken a project to protect the banks of four rivers – Buriganga, Turag, Shitalakshya and Balu – surrounding the capital from the illegal encroachment. According to a report published in this newspaper on Tuesday the project aims to increase the navigability, depth and amplitude of these four rivers. The project will also look into the environmental aspect and free the rivers from pollution. Once profusely flowing, these rivers have been seriously harmed due to the mindless encroachment by vested quarters. Encroachment has become a serious issue. Not only the capital, all across the country, many free-flowing rivers have become a series of stagnant water bodies.

Environmentalists have been emphasising for long that the rivers in and around the city have to be saved from encroachment and pollution. These rivers have been the targets of land grabbers having enough political influence and money to run their nefarious activities.  Experts, time and again have alerted us to the grave danger of allowing these rivers to die due to pollution and the pressure of encroachment. The decision makers have apparently been convinced by the arguments of the environmentalists, and attempts to evict the encroachers have been made from time to time. However soon things got back to square one. We hope that when the project is completed in 2023 the rivers would regain their pristine glory.

It must be admitted that until now, we have not done a very good job of protecting our rivers from encroachment and illegal grabbing. Way back 2009, the National River Protection Commission (NRPC) was formed in the light of a High Court verdict, but while the commission was empowered to dispense petitions to protect rivers, it lacked the authority to take action against illegal river grabbers. As a result, river encroachment continues unabated. A blatant disregard for the laws in place is what has caused the situation to reach such a sorry state. It nothing short of a tragedy that so much encroachment has happened in the recent years. Many of Bangladesh’s rivers appear beyond saving, and this is taking a major toll on our environment, on aquatic life, and on various industries.

Rivers follow the rules of nature. If the width of a river is reduced by encroachment, it may have an impact on the discharge it normally carries; natural volume of flow may reduce; as a response, the depth of the river lessens, thus permanently shrinking the river in terms of size and flow volume. According to statistics, the country had about 700 rivers four decades ago but today only about 400 exist. At the time of the country's liberation the total length of rivers and water bodies was 24,000 kilometers which now has reduced to little more than 3,000 kilometres.

While the project is indeed a step in the right direction steps to stop the encroachment, grabbing, and abuse of our rivers can and should start now. Immediate conservation efforts including registering all the rivers crisscrossing the country are very crucial as some rivers are vanishing from the map. On many occasions, the government took up dredging projects to regain navigability of the rivers drying up. The move was aimed at removing faulty stretches of roads, dams, privately built structures disturbing the natural flow of the rivers. Unfortunately, most of the initiatives ended in failure.

Saving the rivers is no easy task. As stated earlier in most cases, encroachers and polluters are politically and financially influential. An uphill battle against them can only be won if there is strong political commitment and social movement to save our rivers. Also, there is a need for ensuring better coordination among different government agencies. The BIWTA is entrusted with the task of tackling illegal grabbing, while the owner of the river water is the water resources ministry and the riverbanks are owned by the shipping ministry and the environment ministry is entrusted with the task of checking water pollution.  Ironically ever after having so many bodies too look after them the condition of the rivers continues to deteriorate.