Saving Dhaka rivers

The government is going to set up a total of 10,820 fresh boundary pillars along the four Dhaka rivers under an ongoing project, said the national taskforce on protecting the country’s rivers and navigability in a meeting at the shipping ministry yesterday.

The government over past one decade until last year has set up 9,577 boundary pillars of which around 4,000 were disputed, due to wrong boundary line, and almost all the pillars either broke down or were vandalised, displaced or dismantled.

The project also includes building 52km walkway, plantation, three eco-parks, six pontoons, 40km key-wall and 19 RCC jetties along the rivers Buriganga, Turag, Shitalakhya and Balu by the year 2022, the taskforce informed.

It also said Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) evicted 5,239 illegal structures from within the Dhaka rivers between January and June and recovered some 145 acres of river foreshore area.

In order to enhance navigability of the inland riverways across the country, seven dredging projects are ongoing, the taskforce told the meeting.

The rivers and canals where dredging is presently going on are Bishkhali, Kirtankhola, Karnapara Khal, Pian, Arial Khan, Ichhamoti, Palong, Nariakhal, Shitalakhya, Kaliganga, Gaghor, Madhumati, Turag, Kumar, Dhaleswari, old Brahmaputra, Titas, Surma, Bakkhali, Bhairab, Atrai, Bhola, Padma, Meghna, Gabkhan channel, Karnaphuli channel, Pashur river channel, Tetulia and others.

Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury, state minister for shipping, who is also chairperson of the taskforce, chaired the meeting.

It was also attended by Environment and Climate Change Minister Md Shahab Uddin and Shipping Secretary Md Abdus Samad.