Facilitating land reclamation

The country's landmass was earlier reported to be increasing by 20 square kilometres (12.5 square miles) annually. This estimate was largely based on several years' studies of satellite images. Data then showed that the sediments travelling down the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers from the Himalayan watershed were creating new land as these were washing into the Bay of Bengal. Such reports did otherwise contradict forecasts about parts of Bangladesh disappearing under water due to global warming. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) did also predict that Bangladesh would lose 17 per cent of its land by 2050 because of rising sea levels due to global warming. The IPCC sounded more pessimistic about the inevitability of this sea level rise as it concluded that the Himalayan glaciers would melt very fast and completely by the current decade. The facts are yet to validate such gloomy forecasts. The conclusion about Himalayan glaciers completely melting, fairly soon, is still not found to be based on well-founded premises. All such developments do tend to weaken notably the calculations about the surety of the sea-level rise and its implications for Bangladesh. But satellite images dating back to 1973 and old maps earlier than that, did rather show some 1,000 square kilometres of land had risen from the sea. Unfortunately, non-inclusion of projects in the country's annual development programmes (ADPs) to hasten land accretion in the country's coastal areas means no government in Bangladesh has paid-- so far-- due attention to this exciting prospect. No allocations have been made over the years to build dams or other structures needed to accelerate the process of accretion of coastal lands. This attitude, undoubtedly, reflects a serious neglect of the vital national interests. Successive governments should have done all in their powers to accelerate the land reclamation process which holds out so much promise for this land-hungry country. They should have been proactive in mobilising foreign assistance to realise the objective. Ali Reza Khan Shaymoli, Dhaka