When it comes to the protection of Bangladesh's many rivers, governments present and past have utterly failed in living up to this most important of commitments.
Despite our nation's image as “the land of rivers,” Bangladesh continues to struggle to protect its rivers as pollution and encroachment threaten to all but decimate this core component of our national identity.
It is abundantly clear that whatever measures were taken to improve the state of our rivers, they are not enough. While the recovery of river banks from illegal occupants is a good step, it does very little to address the issue at the heart of the matter.
River encroachment is almost always carried out because of the vested interests of unscrupulous, influential individuals. And yet, despite this being all but an open secret, nothing is ever done to bring these people to book, which all but enables the practice to continue.
Year after year, news of people's dwellings falling into the rivers make headlines, which is usually a direct result of the abuse our rivers are subjected to through encroachment and pollution. Surely the destruction of both property and nature require punitive measures taken against the culprits?
While action against river encroachers is certainly important, we must also address the factors which lead to such circumstances, especially when it comes to river pollution. To that end, the need for better cooperation between government bodies and environmental organizations to keep the country's rivers healthy has never been higher.
Indeed, the administration has a number of laws in place to protect our rivers but, once again, it all comes down to enforcement of such laws. Our blatant disregard for the laws in place, and bodies like the National River Protection Commission lacking teeth, is what has caused the situation to reach such an unfortunate state.
