The recently-inaugurated National River Protection Commission is a mere advisory body to the government and lacks executive power, allege environmentalists.
“The commission could be a powerful organisation to work for the overall development of rivers. Although it has provision for including experts on river, water and environment, engineers and even human rights activists, there is no representative from the social movements that have been going on for the last 15 years for protecting rivers in this country,” said Md Abdul Matin, secretary general of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (Bapa), at a press conference yesterday.
“We welcome the National River Protection Commission as it is better to have something than nothing. However, we are doubtful about its role to meet the people’s expectation regarding river protection,” he said.
The commission should consist at least two civil society members who have clear records in river protection movement to make the government aware of the real situation of the country’s rivers, Matin added.
The commission started its journey on September 3 under the National River Protection Commission Act 2012.
Columnist Syed Abul Maksud was also present at the event organised by Bapa at the Dhaka Reporter’s Unity. He said: “The government should introduce a special tribunal to punish river grabbers and polluters for saving the rivers and the ecology.”
Other speakers urged the government to formulate a policy for the commission to protect the country’s rivers from pollution and grabbing.
They also demanded that restoring the navigability of rivers and evicting grabbers from the river areas be the core agenda of the commission.
