The government is expected to undertake a Tk 5.09 billion project for dredging twelve important river routes across the country to increase navigability along the waterways for safer movement of water transport round the year, sources said.
Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), in a project proposal submitted to the ministry concerned, identified the 12 major river routes for emergency dredging to improve and restore navigability by the end of the current financial year.
According to the project profile (PP), 261 kilometres of river routes out of total 953 kilometres would be dredged under the project. More than 316 cubic metres of soil would be removed from the channels.
The rivers of the country discharge about 5 million cusec water during floods, and 2.4 billion tonnes of silts flow (come in) annually down the rivers. This quantity is 18.5 per cent of the total volume of silts in the world.
Besides, regular river erosion also worsens navigability of the rivers. As a result, the rivers have been gradually dying, the project proposal says.
"Increasing navigability of the river routes has become a burning issue of the time, otherwise vehicular movement on the routes might fall in trouble anytime," the project director (PD) of 'Dredging on 12 Important river routes', Md Mahmudul Alam, told the FE Wednesday.
"A huge amount of silts from upstream sources of the rivers enter our rivers every year. As a result, the rivers have been gradually dying and major dredging of the river routes has emerged as an urgent task for the government," the BIWTA project proposal mentions.
"Increasing navigability of the rivers will ensure rapid, cost-effective and smooth plying of cargo and passenger vessels, and the volume of traffic will also increase."
It adds: "Marketing and distribution of agricultural inputs and outputs will also be enhanced, which, in turn, will have a positive impact on the country's economy."
Furthermore, the improvement of the waterways by dredging will also facilitate irrigation and preservation of ecological balance.
The river routes to be dredged are Dhaka-Taltala-Dohuri-Zazira-Madaripur-Kabirajpur-Chowdhuryhat/Peajkhali-Charjanajat/Kaorakandi, Laharhat-Veduria, Shahaberhat-Tungibari-Laharhat, Sadarghat-Berulia, Paturia-Baghabari, Demra-Gorashal-Palash, Dhaka-Ramchar-Madaripur, Dhaka-Shariatpur, Chandpur-Nandirbazar-Shikarpur-Hularhat, Hularhat-Charchapli-Gopalganj, Narayanganj-Daudkandi and Dhaka-Sureswar-Angaria-Madaripur.
However, experts and environmentalists expressed their mixed reactions over the river-dredging initiative.
"Dredging river routes is a time-befitting and appreciable decision, but proper utilisation of the public money is a matter of concern," executive director of Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) Dr A Atiq Rahman told the FE correspondent.
"The government every year spends huge amounts of money for dredging. But there is no positive impact as, we see, waterways have been shrinking gradually due to lower navigability. So, where is the output of the expenditure?" he questioned.
Besides, during the dry season, most of the river routes become unfit for movement of water transport and thus supply of agricultural inputs and the marketing of the outputs are seriously hampered.
"So, we will urge the government to ensure a strong monitoring of such work and to increase efforts for the dredging of other river routes as soon as possible," he further added.
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