Dying of rivers
Institutional weakness main reason
UNB
Experts at a dialogue in Dhaka yesterday said Bangladesh fails to take effective steps at regional and international levels to protect its rivers due to its institutional weakness, which are affecting millions of lower-riparian people, reports UNB. They said many politicians and different institutions are directly killing the countrys rivers as there is no specific river protection law and effective policy.
According to them, political activists often halt the river protection initiatives utilising the institutional weakness of the government. ActionAid Bangladesh arranged the dialogue, titled Rights of River Right to River, at Cirdap auditorium. General Secretary of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan (Bapa) Abdul Matin said the High Court earlier in its order asked the authorities concerned to protect the countrys rivers, but the government and influential people do not follow the order. Local administration and politicians are not serious to save rivers.
Hasnat Quayyum, a legal expert on river, said there are hundreds of policies in the country, but no policy on rivers is found and that is why people are killing rivers in many ways.
National River Protection Commission member Sharmin Morshid said the Commission was formed aiming to save the countrys rivers and ensure the peoples right to water, but it is a matter of sorrow that it is a weak institution.
The National River Protection Commission is running without its chairman in the last three months. It is now an incomplete entity, she said.
Stressing the need for conducting more research on rivers, Sharmin said regional and international diplomacy must be strengthened to protect the countrys rivers, but water diplomacy is very poor here.
Parliamentary Standing Committee member on LGRD and Cooperatives Fazle Hossain Badsha, and Tipu Sultan also spoke at the dialogue.
