Barishal Correspondent :
Water is the source of all life and needs to be managed carefully. Activities and problems of water management are connected with soil, sand and sediment also. So we should need a proper policy for that.
It was said by the speakers, participants of discussion styled as ‘Developing the draft watershed Management Policy and Implementation Framework’ at Hotel Grand Park of the City on Sunday.
It was organised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in collaboration with United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.
The programme was moderated by Dr. Hafiz Ashraful Haque, professor of Barisal University’s Coastal Studies and Disaster Management Department.
Key note paper was presented by IUCN country representative Raquibul Amin, while Prof Mohammad Rejaur Rahman of Institute of Water and Flood Management of BUET, attended as chief guest.
The speakers and participants said demand for water is growing rapidly in agriculture mainly from irrigation for cereal production, the urban and industrial sector, fishery, inland navigation and salinity control.
The supply of clean and uncontaminated water has fallen far short of demand owing to inadequate flows of rivers due to pollution caused by the disposal of effluents and chemicals, salinity intrusion in the coastal area and arsenic contamination.
Further, the availability of freshwater is highly seasonal depending on the presence and duration of the monsoon. The incidence of both flood and drought in a yearly cycle profoundly affects river morphology.
Speakers and participants of the programme said in costal area huge people displaced by the affect of natural disaster like Sidr, Ayla.
Agriculture hampered for salinity, reducing water flow in rivers and cannels. Water body silted due to carrying heavy mud by water flows. The problem of depositing sediment carried by river flows could not be solved only by dredging. So we need a policy of water management.
In costal areas, 3750 kilometer canals are silted and huge rivers lost their navigability; most of the embankment are washed away by erosion and over flowed by advancing saline water.
In this condition the speakers and participants suggested local community based water management for needs of irrigation and lively hood.
The speakers observed that while rivers and canals are silted and polluted by disposal of toxic wastes, biodiversity, irrigation and lively hood hampered seriously. Freshwater species are going extinct even more rapidly than terrestrial or marine species, they observed.
For environment protection we should save our wetlands including pond, canals, beel, haor and rivers, as water preservers.
The scale and speed of biodiversity loss threatens people and life on earth. 2020 is a crunch year for the biodiversity and climate emergencies. Commitment to protect and restore our wetlands and the biodiversity needed urgently, they suggested.
They suggested the governments to review international agreements relevant to this challenge, including the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Water is the source of all life and needs to be managed carefully. Activities and problems of water management are connected with soil, sand and sediment also. So we should need a proper policy for that.
It was said by the speakers, participants of discussion styled as ‘Developing the draft watershed Management Policy and Implementation Framework’ at Hotel Grand Park of the City on Sunday.
It was organised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in collaboration with United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.
The programme was moderated by Dr. Hafiz Ashraful Haque, professor of Barisal University’s Coastal Studies and Disaster Management Department.
Key note paper was presented by IUCN country representative Raquibul Amin, while Prof Mohammad Rejaur Rahman of Institute of Water and Flood Management of BUET, attended as chief guest.
The speakers and participants said demand for water is growing rapidly in agriculture mainly from irrigation for cereal production, the urban and industrial sector, fishery, inland navigation and salinity control.
The supply of clean and uncontaminated water has fallen far short of demand owing to inadequate flows of rivers due to pollution caused by the disposal of effluents and chemicals, salinity intrusion in the coastal area and arsenic contamination.
Further, the availability of freshwater is highly seasonal depending on the presence and duration of the monsoon. The incidence of both flood and drought in a yearly cycle profoundly affects river morphology.
Speakers and participants of the programme said in costal area huge people displaced by the affect of natural disaster like Sidr, Ayla.
Agriculture hampered for salinity, reducing water flow in rivers and cannels. Water body silted due to carrying heavy mud by water flows. The problem of depositing sediment carried by river flows could not be solved only by dredging. So we need a policy of water management.
In costal areas, 3750 kilometer canals are silted and huge rivers lost their navigability; most of the embankment are washed away by erosion and over flowed by advancing saline water.
In this condition the speakers and participants suggested local community based water management for needs of irrigation and lively hood.
The speakers observed that while rivers and canals are silted and polluted by disposal of toxic wastes, biodiversity, irrigation and lively hood hampered seriously. Freshwater species are going extinct even more rapidly than terrestrial or marine species, they observed.
For environment protection we should save our wetlands including pond, canals, beel, haor and rivers, as water preservers.
The scale and speed of biodiversity loss threatens people and life on earth. 2020 is a crunch year for the biodiversity and climate emergencies. Commitment to protect and restore our wetlands and the biodiversity needed urgently, they suggested.
They suggested the governments to review international agreements relevant to this challenge, including the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
