Ensure allocation for coastal embankment

Speakers during a virtual seminar yesterday urged the government to protect coastal people by providing budgetary allocation for embankment under the local government.

The participants demanded that the government allocates at least Tk 12,000 crore per year only for embankment construction.

Local government should be given mandate and budget for embankment construction and maintenance while Water Development Board has to provide design, monitoring and technical support, they said.

Army personnel should be deployed immediately to reconstruct the embankment in worst affected areas, especially after cyclone Amphan, they added.

NGO-based initiatives COAST Trust, and Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods jointly organised the seminar on "National Budget 2020-2021, Embankment and Protection of Coastal Population", said a press release.

Presenting a keynote paper, Arif Dewan of COAST said despite of the destruction by cyclone Amphan, the government hardly allocated incremental finance for embankment to save coastal people and their crops.

Chairing the seminar, Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation Chairman Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad called on the government to make priority of coastal embankment construction led by local government.

Ruling Awami League lawmaker Saber Hossain Chowdhury said there were pre-Apmhan activities to save the lives but "we must go for a long-term plan on construction and sustainable management of embankment".

This should be a priority issue for the "8th Five Year Plan", said Saber, also chair of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Forest, Environment and Climate Change.

Another AL lawmaker Md Akhteruzzaman said emergency embankment has to be built in Khulna and Satkhira areas.

Rezaul Karim Chowdhury of COAST said the government needs to follow a model used in Sri Lanka that saw coastal afforestation in the either sides of embankments.