Unplanned dev projects ravaging rivers: speakers
Indiscriminate implementation of projects in the name of development have proved counterproductive, as those have spelt lethal blows to the very existence of the country’s rivers over the decades, said top officials and conservationists at a seminar yesterday.
“Government agencies have been implementing haphazard development schemes at will on and across the rivers and canals over the decades, that have proved detrimental for rivers and canals,” said Md Alauddin, member of the National River Conservation Commission (NRCC).
NRCC, jointly with Bangladesh Nodi Bachao Andolon, organised the seminar on “Plan and role of the relevant agencies in development of rivers” in the capital.
Government organisations like Bangladesh Water Development Board, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation, Local Government Engineering Department and Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation have been implementing development projects in an uncoordinated fashion, adversely affecting the rivers and canals, said Alauddin.
“I call upon the Planning Commission to ensure strict evaluation of viability of river- or canal-related development projects -- and how they are going to affect the rivers and canals -- before approval,” he said.
The Planning Commission should consider the issues of navigability, pollution and grabbing of rivers and canals, and sustainability of coastal areas in the process of approving development schemes, implementation of which has grave bearing on those water bodies, he said.
“A foremost problem in the government offices is that they lack coordination among themselves, and the Planning Commission can make sure that different agencies coordinate and consult with the National River Commission before executing a scheme,” said Alauddin.
Abu Naser Khan, a veteran river conservation activist and chairman of environmentalist group Poribesh Bachao Andolon, said, “The country’s rivers are being ravaged and killed in the name of development.”
Rivers and canals will survive only if their natural flow and characters are protected with routine conservation work that does not necessitate any uncalled-for expensive schemes -- making way for plundering of public money, he said.
Malik Fida A Khan, executive director of Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services and a member of the NRCC, said in a presentation that any project in the name of river or wetland development must ensure natural flow of the water body, and obtain prior approval from relevant authority.
There is a very powerful quarter that operates after undertaking hurried schemes in the name of river development, without adequate examination and justification for the public money to be spent, said Muzibur Rahman Howlader, chairman of NRCC.
“The river grabbers are so powerful that they can even replace a high-ranking official, who is keen and dedicated to saving the country’s rivers and canals,” he said. “So, it may not be possible to save rivers in a meaningful manner without participation of the people and public representatives.”
Relevant river custodians do not enforce laws in effect for conservation, said Howlader, adding that even the Criminal Procedure Code of 1898 empowers police with the sections 133, 135, 137 and 139 to arrest a river grabber and produce them before a district magistrate for punishment.
“With multiple laws already in place for river conservation, one does not necessarily have to wait for a High Court judgment to save the country’s rivers,” he said.
Sections 277 and 278 of the Penal Code have provisions for punishment in this regard, he said.
Md Zakir Hossain Akand, a member of the Planning Commission, said, “In most cases, implementing agencies of proposed development schemes prefer hurried approval from Planning Commission, and at times they cannot provide necessary information either.”
“Proposals include such schemes that we cannot always raise our objections,” he said. “Representation of the NRCC chairman in the Planning Commission’s approval process may help the situation.”
Planning Minister MA Mannan, and a number of district representatives of Bangladesh Nodi Bachao Andolon, also spoke at the event.
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