Saving rivers

Rivers have rightly been considered a lifeline. Environmentalists in Sylhet have taken this sustaining idea to a new high when they euphemistically called the river flowing by that city their mother. They posed the all important question: 'Why is the garbage dumped in the lap of mother?' A leading Bangla contemporary has given reasonably enough prominence to the awareness of environment demonstrated by all involved with environmental movement there. Without rivers and their tributaries Bangladesh would not have been what it is and will not remain so in the future. People are becoming increasingly aware of the need for maintaining environment as unpolluted as possible but the efforts are still far from adequate. Along with the Sylhetis, inhabitants of Siranjganj also launched a clean-up campaign last Saturday. This certainly augurs well for the country. When mayors and government high-ups join hands with common people or lead such clean-up campaigns, the psychological impact is far greater than the actual task. This helps because people become careful about littering refuse and garbage.

Sadly, such campaigns are short-lived. Unless campaigns like the "Save Buriganga" are sustained in order to drive home the message among people of all strata and a pressure is built on the official functionaries, they are destined to peter out. The reverence shown in imagining river as mother only brings to the fore people's heightened concern about the sanctity of the source of fertility of the landmass called Bangladesh. Rivers almost everywhere in the country are subjected to abuse of all kinds. Where land is precious, encroachment of rivers is viral. Pollution through dumping of solid waste and industrial effluent exceeds all proportion in most cases. But as confirmed by environmentalists of the Sylhet campaign, rivers face the daunting challenge of maintaining their flow and health right from the point where they encounter towns and cities. In villages they are relatively free from such massive abuses. Here the message is loud and clear. Cities and towns once built on the banks of rivers are the worst polluters. Evidently, city people have a greater responsibility than inhabitants of villages to mend their ways.

In developed countries those rivers that flow by their important cities or just bisect urban centres, are carefully nurtured. The question of throwing the slightest refuse into their water does not simply arise. In the country called riverine, such water channels in total contrast are maltreated. The Buriganga could not highlight the point more. Other rivers around the capital city hardly fare any better. This is suicidal. If these rivers embrace a premature death, a devastating consequence awaits cities like Dhaka. Water pollution has long become a cause for concern. Dredging carried out last time showed the extent of thick layers of polythene accumulated at the riverbed. Till today the Buriganga's water does not provide condition for survival of any living organism there. What a horrible situation! This fact alone should have prompted everyone concerned to get into the job of fixing the river's health. What has been done so far falls far short of the required measures to save the Buriganga and other rivers. Alarm bell has been sounded long ago, now every hour counts. Let a comprehensive plan be chalked out in order to save the country's rivers.