Claiming Bangladesh has already reclaimed around 1,000 square kilometers of land from the sea, Water Resources Minister Barrister Anisul Islam Mahmud on Sunday said the government has given top priority on reclamation of land from Bay of Bengal.
“We have built an enclosure at Musapur on the coast. We expect we will be able to reclaim about 10,000 square kilometers of land from sea through this enclosure,” he told reporters after attending a workshop in the capital.
Giving examples of the United Arabs Emirates (UAE) and Singapore, the Water Resources Minister said Bangladesh must seriously consider new ways to reclaim more land from the sea due to its burgeoning population.
Speaking at the inaugural session of the workshop, he said about 1.8 billion tonnes of silt flow through the rivers of the country every year and fall into the Bay of Bengal. “So, why we do not reclaim land from the Bay?”
Institute of Water Modelling (IWM) and Partners of Delta Alliance Bangladesh Wing jointly organised the workshop on ‘Urban Flooding in Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta’ at city’s BRAC Centre Inn.
Speaking as the chief guest, Anisul Islam Mahmud said if the sea-level rises by just 1 meter due to climate change in the future, a huge portion of the country’s coastal lands will be inundated.
“The coastal polders were built in the 1960s. So redesign of these old polders must be considered seriously…we have to find a way to protect our coastal land.”
Turning to the issue of Teesta water, Anisul Islam said India must give Bangladesh its fair share of water, but criticised the country’s media and civil society for not discussing the more serious aspects of the issues.
“We have the right to get every cubic meter of water (that we are entitled to) from India, but we have to talk about optimum utilization of water as well,” said the Jatiya Party leader known to harbour strong connections within Indian political circles.
“People always talk about the created issues, instead of serious issues like the proposed Ganges River Barrage Project that the government is working on,” he added.
State Minister for Water Resources M Nazrul Islam, Water Resources secretary Dr Zafar Ahmed Khan and IWM executive director Prof Dr M Monowar Hossain, among others, spoke at the workshop.
Experts and policymakers from relevant ministries, development partners, and representatives from different government and non-government organisations attended the workshop.
