Anisur Rahman Khan :
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.
On the other hand, Bangladesh has recently received a letter from Myanmar requesting for permission to dredge on their side of Naf river, which acts as a natural channel between the two countries, sources said.
However, Bangladesh government is going to hold an inter-ministerial meeting on June 5 to discuss on how to proceed dredging related issue of Naaf river.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry has served a letter to different ministries and related stakeholders on May 29 for the ‘inter-ministerial meeting on the ongoing dredging activities in the Naaf River undertaken by both Bangladesh and Myanmar side’ which the meeting will be presided by Acting Foreign Secretary Rear Admiral (Retd) Md Khurshed Alam.
The meeting will determine to assess the impact of dredging activities and other factors like survey and mapping etc, sources said.
The Bangladesh Economic Zone Authority (BEZA) and the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) will conduct the dredging work of the Naaf river in Bangladesh side.
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.
“We have taken steps several times to dredge the Naaf river, but it was not possible due to non-cooperation of the Myanmar government,” MA Matin, Chief Engineer of BIWTA (Dredging) told The New Nation on Monday.
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.
