Some 308 rivers have lost navigability in Bangladesh, State Minister for Shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury told Parliament on Tuesday.
Among those rivers, 85 are in Dhaka division, 71 in Rangpur division, 18 in Rajshahi division, 11 in Chittagong division, 10 in Sylhet division, 26 in Mymensingh division and 87 in Khulna division.
The minister said this while responding to a question from the ruling party MP elected from Chittagong-11 in the National Parliament on Tuesday night.
According to the National River Commission, Bangladesh has a total of 1,008 rivers, while the district administrations and Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) reported 931 flowing rivers in the country.
This means almost one-third of rivers in Bangladesh have lost their navigability.
However, Khalid also said that the government has taken a concept paper for dredging 491 rivers of the country, and already 3,733km river dredging has been completed by the BIWTA.
Besides, a total of 14 development projects are under implementation (ongoing) by BIWTA in the current financial year (2023-2024).
“In the last 15 years, from 2009 to 2023, 35 projects under ADP and five projects initiated by the shipping ministry have been taken to make the rivers navigable,” added the state minister.
“To keep the country's riverine communication system normal and to increase the navigability of the rivers, the current government has prepared a concept paper for digging 491 rivers. According to the concept paper, BIWTA will dig 178 rivers and the Water Development Board will dig 313 rivers,” Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury added.
