News Desk :
The government has already bought 38 dredgers and started a process to buy more than 42 under the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) to save the rivers by reducing and protecting the sediment deposition, State Minister for Shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury said Thursday.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has taken steps to buy new dredgers and dredge the rivers to provide much wider navigation channels, he added.
Khalid was addressing the seminar “Challenges of ensuring navigability of Bangladesh’s rivers and sediment management” at the Jatiya Press Club, reports UNB.
Bangladesh Nodi Bachao Andolon’s (Save the River Movement Bangladesh) Dhaka City unit organised the event to mark its 16th founding anniversary.
Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services’s Senior Adviser Dr Maminul Haque Sarker delivered the keynote presentation at the event.
Maminul said river management is necessary to enhance irrigation, navigation and several other water utilities and to minimise the effects of flood, waterlogging and riverbank erosion.
BIWTA Chairman Commodore Golam Sadek, Bangladesh Water Development Board Additional Director General Akhil Kumar Bishwas, and Jatiya Press Club General Secretary Ilias Khan also spoke at the event.
Meanwhile, massive dredging in recent years has brought back navigability to many rivers and opened up new routes, adding 2,300 kilometres of waterways to the country’s river system.
Earlier, State Minister for Shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury said that Bangladesh now has at least 5,900km of waterways during the dry season, up from only 3,865km in 2005. The rise in waterflow in the rainy season adds another 2,000km to the system.
Natural siltation, construction of structures, such as the Farakka dam, and a lack of maintenance had clogged up rivers at many points since 1960 when waterways were 12,000km.
Waterways are considered the cheapest route for cargo transportation. A 2007 World Bank study showed that carrying a tonne of goods a kilometre cost Tk0.99 through waterways while it is Tk2.74 if transported through railways and Tk4.50 by road.
To get the advantage, the government in 2008 set out to recover the lost routes. It purchased 32 dredgers over the last decade, put those to use and engaged the private sector as well to clear the rivers with their machinery, the state minister said.
According to the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), preparations are on to launch commercial operation of several new river routes, including one from Dhaka to Gazipur, and new waterways in the southwestern region.
This achievement is part of the government’s dredging master plan aimed at restoring navigability of 10,000km of river routes within a few years, said BIWTA Chairman Commodore Golam Sadeq.
Right now, there are dredging projects in progress in 53 rivers. One of the projects is to create a circular river route around Dhaka.
Moreover, a World Bank-funded project is being implemented to create a communication channel between Dhaka and Chittagong by 2024.
In addition to 10,000km waterways, the shipping ministry is taking up a project to revive a channel between Magura and Khulna and another between Magura and Barisal.
