Urgent plan for desilting the rivers
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
MD Ashraf Hossain
GREEN house gas emission is warming up the earth and its climate is changing. As a consequence, natural calamities have become more frequent across the world. Frequency and severity of floods have increased in Bangladesh mani-fold in recent times. Almost every year floods damage huge crops across Bangladesh, besides causing other losses.
The farmers are becoming poorer by the year. Their standard of living has been falling. Indeed, Bangladesh is among the worst sufferers of climate change though it is not responsible for green house effect.
Bangladesh has to step up the activities to reduce the adverse effects of flood. Scientists estimate that more than two hundred million tons of silt is deposited in the river beds in Bangladesh each year. Coming from the up-stream, the silt chokes the rivers to reduce their water-carrying capacity. So being unable to carry the excessive silt, the rivers overflow causing the destructive floods.
The capacity of the rivers and canals, therefore, needs to be increased mani-fold so that they do not overflow in monsoon. The government needs to remove the silts regularly to increase the capacity of the rivers and canals to carry an abundance of water flow in the monsoon. Deepening the rivers and canals will facilitate low cost water communication. Besides, the water could be utilised for irrigation in lean season. More water in the rivers will mean more fish for the people. The economy of Bangladesh will benefit in several ways.
The silt could be utilised for better cropping. It could be used for raising land to make roads and highways, develop areas for human habitats and for setting up industries and other development purposes. It would require huge investment to remove the silt from river and canal beds. But the expenditure would be compensated by the economic reforms. Especially, the severity of flooding will be reduced to help the farmers save their crops. But the silt must be removed continuously.
As the government of Bangladesh cannot afford such huge expenditure, the developed countries have to come forward. The government should take up the issue of silt removal with them.
GREEN house gas emission is warming up the earth and its climate is changing. As a consequence, natural calamities have become more frequent across the world. Frequency and severity of floods have increased in Bangladesh mani-fold in recent times. Almost every year floods damage huge crops across Bangladesh, besides causing other losses.
The farmers are becoming poorer by the year. Their standard of living has been falling. Indeed, Bangladesh is among the worst sufferers of climate change though it is not responsible for green house effect.
Bangladesh has to step up the activities to reduce the adverse effects of flood. Scientists estimate that more than two hundred million tons of silt is deposited in the river beds in Bangladesh each year. Coming from the up-stream, the silt chokes the rivers to reduce their water-carrying capacity. So being unable to carry the excessive silt, the rivers overflow causing the destructive floods.
The capacity of the rivers and canals, therefore, needs to be increased mani-fold so that they do not overflow in monsoon. The government needs to remove the silts regularly to increase the capacity of the rivers and canals to carry an abundance of water flow in the monsoon. Deepening the rivers and canals will facilitate low cost water communication. Besides, the water could be utilised for irrigation in lean season. More water in the rivers will mean more fish for the people. The economy of Bangladesh will benefit in several ways.
The silt could be utilised for better cropping. It could be used for raising land to make roads and highways, develop areas for human habitats and for setting up industries and other development purposes. It would require huge investment to remove the silt from river and canal beds. But the expenditure would be compensated by the economic reforms. Especially, the severity of flooding will be reduced to help the farmers save their crops. But the silt must be removed continuously.
As the government of Bangladesh cannot afford such huge expenditure, the developed countries have to come forward. The government should take up the issue of silt removal with them.