Govt eyes 10,000 square km land from sea thru’ reclamation

FE Team | Published: May 11, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

Water Resources Minister Anisul Islam Mahmud Sunday said the government has given top priority on reclamation of land from Bay of Bengal, reports UNB.
The minister said the country has already reclaimed around 1,000 square kilometers of land from the sea.
"We have built an enclosure at Musapur on the coast. We expect we will be able to reclaim about 10,000 square kilometres (kms) of land from sea through this enclosure," he told reporters after attending a workshop in the capital.
Giving examples of the United Arabs Emirates (UAE) and Singapore, the Water Resources Minister said Bangladesh must seriously consider new ways to reclaim more land from the sea for its growing population.
Speaking at the inaugural session of the workshop, he said about 1.8 billion tonnes of silt flow through the rivers of the country every year and fall into the Bay of Bengal. "So, why do we not reclaim land from the Bay?"
Institute of Water Modelling (IWM) and Partners of Delta Alliance Bangladesh Wing jointly organised the workshop on 'Urban Flooding in Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta' at city's BRAC Centre Inn.
Mr Mahmud said if the sea-level rises by just 1.0 metre due to climate change in the future, a huge portion of the country's coastal lands will be inundated.
"The coastal polders were built in the 1960s. So redesigning these old polders must be considered seriously...we have to find a way to protect our coastal land."
Turning to the issue of Teesta water, he said India must give Bangladesh its fair share of water, but criticised the country's media and civil society for not discussing the more serious aspects of the issue.
"We have the right to get every cubic metre of water (that we are entitled to) from India, but we have to talk about optimum utilisation of water as well," said the Jatiya Party leader.
"People always talk about the created issues, instead of serious issues like the proposed Ganges River Barrage Project that the government is working on," he added.