Drive to recover Louhajang river continues
With the drive to recover the Louhajang river in Tangail municipal area continuing in full swing, the once beautiful river is gradually returning to its previous shape.
The Tangail district administration began the drive on March 1. On the first day, around 2,000 members of BD Clean, a voluntary organization, took part to clean-up around 1.5km stretch of the river in the municipal area.
The district administration then started constructing walkways on both banks of the river after removing most structures on the riverbanks from Housing Bridge to Stadium area. Local environmental activists Ratan Ahmed Siddique and Nur Mohammad Rajjo are assisting the administration in the works.
Earlier, the then district administrations evicted illegal structures from both sides of the river during drives in 2016 and 2020.
Tangail Sadar UNO Hasan Bin Ali, who is coordinating the river recovery drive, said they are following the Water Act 2013 in carrying out the drive.
The people living in vicinity of the river are helping the administration spontaneous, with many of them having removed their structures from the river's land on the their own, the UNO also said.
"The construction of the walkways may be completed by next week. The district administration is bearing the cost of the works so far," Hasan Ali added.
Gautam Chandra Chanda, divisional coordinator of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA), lauded the initiative and recommended the authorities to keep the riverbanks free of traffic movement. "We request the authorities to follow the instructions of the higher court in this regard," he added.
"All these activities are going on across only 1.5km stretch of the 76km long river. We want to see the entire river saved and its flow restored, otherwise the rest of the river will remain dirty and dead," said Babul Khan, a local resident.
"I would like to thank the people for their cooperation. At the same time, I urge them not to try to occupy the river's land again. Necessary legal action will be taken against anyone trying to encroach on the river again later," said Md Kaiserul Islam, deputy commissioner of Tangail.
The DC also vowed to keep the river clean, and excavate it to restore its natural flow.
Comments