Why do we only pretend to care about rivers?

We are extremely disturbed that yet another river is on the verge of dying because of pure negligence and inaction from all authorities concerned. The Kharia, once a primary support for agriculture, fisheries and transportation in Phulpur upazila, Mymensingh, has now become a seasonal narrow stream, marred with heaps of toxic waste and encroached lands. Despite continuous appeals from journalists, experts and environmental organisations, and numerous directives from the High Court and the government, no effective steps have been taken to save the river, just like many other rivers in this riverine country.

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Rhetoric cannot save our rivers

We want to know why, during its 23 years of existence, the Phulpur municipality has failed to develop a proper garbage management system to stop people from dumping waste in the river, or to clear up the waste accumulated for years, and even the garbage that the municipality itself used to dump beside the river. While the locals have been repeatedly accusing powerful and influential individuals of encroaching considerable parts of the 25-km river, the UNO, who is also the authorised local personnel of the National River Conservation Commission (NRCC), says they are still working on the list of encroachments. Here, too, there is little indication of implementing the 17 directives to save rivers, ruled by the High Court back in 2019.

While the government has been expressing satisfaction with their drives to save rivers – for instance, in September 2022, State Minister for Shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury falsely claimed that the BIWTA had cleared 90 percent of the river areas grabbed illegally – cases like the Kharia expose that the dire condition is not only limited to big rivers beside large cities and industrial areas. Besides the Kharia, many rivers in Mymensingh including the Brahmaputra, Khiru, Sutia, and Norosunda are in dreadful conditions because of similar reasons. Ruling party lawmaker and former food minister Kamrul Islam stated last year that the river grabbers and the public representatives who assist them extort benefits from the ruling party. We have also seen instances where river grabbers marked by the NRCC continued to work with Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) and Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC), both of which are under the shipping ministry. We fear that this culture of inaction, negligence, and allowing influential individuals and companies to keep encroaching on major rivers encourages the local authorities to overlook the bare minimum to save relatively smaller rivers like the Kharia.

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A river barely hanging on

Although it seems like a lost battle at this point, we urge the authorities to finally internalise the unparalleled importance of rivers for our country, people, and the environment, and take action accordingly.