UNB, Dhaka :
Terming riverbank erosion a ‘silent cancer’ for the country, Water Resources Minister Anisul Islam Mahmud on Tuesday said erosion is more devastating than cyclone or flood as it claims everything what people possess.
“If a cyclone or a flood hits people, they have the chance to return to normal life. If people once become migrant losing their belongings due to riverbank erosion, they’re forced out of society. And it’s quite impossible to return to normal life,” he said.
The Water Resources Minister was addressing the launching ceremony of a book ‘People of Many Rivers: Tales from the Riverbanks’ orgainsed by ActionAid Bangladesh at a city hotel.
Speaking as the chief guest, Anisul Islam said the government taken a mega project involving about US$ 1.7 billion to build an embankment on the right bank of the Brahmaputra River to protect lands and property of local people from erosion.
He said, resettlement villages or cluster villages will be built for rehabilitating the
affected people before launching the embankment project as a huge number of people will be displaced from the riverbank in the project area.
Once the project is implemented, the people living along the riverbank will be benefited from it, the minister added. Saying that the construction of riverbank is very expensive, the Water Resources Minister said at least Tk one lakh is needed to build one metre of embankment. “Now we’ll have to think whether we’ll allow erosion and flood to take place in the country.”
Indian water expert Dr Sanjoy Hazarika said Brahmaputra, Ganges and Meghna are not the rivers of a single country but the rivers of Asia, which have a plenty of natural resources.
About the people’s dependence on rivers, he said: “We’ll survive if the rivers remain alive.”
Terming riverbank erosion a ‘silent cancer’ for the country, Water Resources Minister Anisul Islam Mahmud on Tuesday said erosion is more devastating than cyclone or flood as it claims everything what people possess.
“If a cyclone or a flood hits people, they have the chance to return to normal life. If people once become migrant losing their belongings due to riverbank erosion, they’re forced out of society. And it’s quite impossible to return to normal life,” he said.
The Water Resources Minister was addressing the launching ceremony of a book ‘People of Many Rivers: Tales from the Riverbanks’ orgainsed by ActionAid Bangladesh at a city hotel.
Speaking as the chief guest, Anisul Islam said the government taken a mega project involving about US$ 1.7 billion to build an embankment on the right bank of the Brahmaputra River to protect lands and property of local people from erosion.
He said, resettlement villages or cluster villages will be built for rehabilitating the
affected people before launching the embankment project as a huge number of people will be displaced from the riverbank in the project area.
Once the project is implemented, the people living along the riverbank will be benefited from it, the minister added. Saying that the construction of riverbank is very expensive, the Water Resources Minister said at least Tk one lakh is needed to build one metre of embankment. “Now we’ll have to think whether we’ll allow erosion and flood to take place in the country.”
Indian water expert Dr Sanjoy Hazarika said Brahmaputra, Ganges and Meghna are not the rivers of a single country but the rivers of Asia, which have a plenty of natural resources.
About the people’s dependence on rivers, he said: “We’ll survive if the rivers remain alive.”
