Bangladesh is often rightfully referred to as the land of rivers. They continue to be the lifeblood of countless people in Bangladesh, and act as an integral component of the country’s transport system. As such, there remain very few matters more pressing for the authorities concerned to address than ensuring that our rivers and water bodies are protected and are therefore utilized to their fullest capacity.
To that end, it is unfortunate that this is an area where we have consistently fallen short of expectations; rivers in Bangladesh continue to dry up, and we are nowhere close to maximizing the potential they offer.
While there have been some efforts made on the part of the government to introduce reforms and changes to protect rivers and strengthen the river transport sector, these efforts have lacked urgency and, more often than not, despite good planning, have failed to see the planning translate to implementation.
This lack of urgency and failure to implement plans continue to plague Bangladesh; policy-makers devising robust policies will have very little benefits if these policies never see the light of day.
It is time this changed. Protecting our rivers and water bodies offers too many benefits for the authorities to not prioritize them -- from environmental benefits, to providing for people, to easing the dependency on our roads and highways. Therefore, the authorities must listen to the calls of both experts and the general public and capitalize on the benefits which our rivers and water bodies can provide.
