Staff Reporter :
The dredging by the Myanmar government on the mouth of the Magyi Chaung creek (Naaf River) would create some major impact on the flora and fauna in that area and, there for Bangladesh raised concern to Myanmar government in this regard, sources in Foreign Ministry.
Earlier on February 10, the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Myanmar has sent a letter to Bangladesh government for permission to dredge on their side of Naaf river, which acts as a natural channel between the two countries.
The Myanmar government has also sought mapping and dredging related information too, sources said.
According to the intelligence report, it suggested the government to carryout dredging works inside Bangladesh waters so that Bangladeshi vessels could navigate through Bangladesh territory in time of need.
Against this backdrop, an inter-ministerial meeting was held on Monday at the Foreign Ministry chaired by Acting Foreign Secretary Rear Admiral (Retd) Md Khurshed Alam.
Representative from different ministries and related stakeholders attended the meeting and discussed on how to proceed dredging related issue of Naaf river.
Bangladesh has decided to provide information to the Myanmar government for survey of the Naaf river dredging.
According to meeting sources, the government has decided to provide information to the Myanmar government.
Besides, the meeting also suggested the Bangladesh Economic Zone Authority (BEZA) to stop dredging work in the Naaf river until getting the dredging alignment by the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), sources said.
According to sources, the BEZA has been conducting dredging work in Naaf river without informing the BIWTA or appointing any consultant.
The BEZA has taken an intiative to dredge the Naaf river from Teknaf to St Martin, sources said adding that the BEZA had no technical power in this regard.
The Foreign Ministry has suggested the BIWTA for
preparing a master plan on the Naaf river dredging works, the source said.
The meeting also suggested the BEZA to conduct dredging works after taking expert’s opinion, sources further said.
According to meeting sources, it also suggested the BEZA to conduct a survey on environmental impact assessment (EIA) too.
However, the Myanmar government has been disregarding the repeated calls of Bangladesh government on the dredging issue of the Naaf river since 2003.
Being a neighbouring country on the South-East, the Myanmar is not responding to the letters for cooperating with dredging work in the Naaf river, rather they always show unfriendly attitude in this regard, according to ministry sources.
The tourist cruises that sailing for St Martin’s have to face navigability problems, sources said adding that the tourism sector will be flourished further after the dredging of the Naaf river.
Sources said, the outstanding issues including Rohingya repatriation between the two countries have become stagnant for a long time because of the non-cooperation of the Myanmar government and their regime change.
Even, international agencies including UNCHR representative are not allowed to talk on the sustainable Rohingya repatriation.
After the Rohingya influx in June 2017, a bilateral agreement was signed to take back their about 11 lakh forcibly displaced Rohingyas to home, but there is no progress yet.
The Rohingya, a Muslim minority group from the northern part of Rakhine State (formerly Arakan) in Myanmar, is among the most vulnerable of the world’s refugee communities.
