Imperatives for dredging on a priority basis

The recent oil tanker crash and resultant catastrophic oil spill in the Shela River in the Sundarbans have brought, once again, the critical importance of dredging of the silted rivers into a sharp focus. Due to non-navigability of the original Mongla-Ghasiakhali river route, such vessels were allowed to ply through rivers in the world's biggest mangrove forest. Reports say, vessels still ply through the Sundarbans rivers though the Prime Minister has directed to stop such navigation and dredge and revive Mongla-Ghasiakhali river route without any delay.

It is against this backdrop that the government has quite rightly felt the urgency of dredging the dying rivers that could spell a disaster for the country's economy. It is now assessing the capacity of the Bangladeshi dredger-makers and suppliers before it starts executing its plan to dredge the country's rivers. Most of the rivers are now clogged with silts, dying slowly due to lack of dredging. Of all the rivers, dredging work should begin on a priority basis in four major rivers-the Jamuna, Meghna, Brahmaputra and Padma. Once the dredging job is completed in these rivers, a number of small rivers will get its benefit.

That the navigability in nearly 7,500 km of waterways has been lost over the last four decades, is therefore an unsavoury piece of news. Most of the country's 310 rivers are dying and losing water-preserving capacity for lack of dredging which has not continued on a regular basis in Bangladesh after the Second World War. This has resulted in the present polluted, silted condition of most of the rivers. This presents the policymakers with a big headache since inland waterways constitute a major trade route. The Prime Minister is anxious to revive the dying rivers considering those as the lifeline of the economy.

While more dredgers are needed to make rivers navigable by removing silts, hazards of undertaking such vital but expensive dredging projects loom large. Dredging is a project, the progress of which cannot be seen with bare eyes. The work basically is under water, providing ample scope for gross misuse of scarce funds by firms involved in dredging, in the absence of proper monitoring of related works. The circular waterway from Sadarghat to Ashulia, to cite here an example, is of no use in the dry season as the project officials had allegedly misappropriated large sums of money meant for dredging and constructing dikes. More than Tk 200 million was allocated for this purpose. In reality, little dredging, as the media reports suggested, was done. This trend among dredging firms has to be taken care of, as development partners, too, are reportedly keen to fund dredging projects because the rivers are the arteries of the national economy.