Fighting river erosion

According to a report by US space agency NASA, the Padma River has devoured over 66,000 hectares of land since 1967 in Bangladesh. In the process, hundreds of thousands of people lost their homes, with critical local infrastructure such as schools, hospitals and local markets swallowed by the river. The report has come at a time when century-old villages in Naria are being wiped out by the river.

There's an ongoing debate among domestic scientific agencies as to why river erosion is taking place. It's time they conducted serious scientific studies so that the pattern can be predicted and long-term plans can be devised in order to combat the phenomenon and minimise the damage.

Jahidul Islam Nahid, Dhaka University