River dredging
Photo: Tomzid Mollick / driknews
Bangladesh is criss-crossed by rivers. The total waterways measure 24,000 km. Two of world's large rivers the Ganges-Padma and the Brahmaputra- Jamuna flows through this country. These rivers carry 2.4 billion tonnes of silt annually. The navigable route has been reduced by 2000km in the last 25 years due to siltation. At present the navigable route stands at 3800km only. So the government of Bangladesh decided to dredge rivers to increase navigability of the river at a cost of Tk. 11,472 crore in two phases. In the first phase, 23 rivers will be dredged at a cost of Tk 4201 crore in 3 years and in second phase 53 rivers will be dredged at a cost of Tk. 7271 crore . The project work will be completed in 8 years starting from now. The government expects 89 % assistance from donors. But work will begin now with our own resources. Dredging involves big investment besides technicalities. Annual maintenance is as important as dredging the channels to make investment useful. So one should consider future provisions for annual maintenance of the channel, Bangladesh Water Development Board with the assistance of Netherlands recently dredged Gorai River, the mouth of which has been silted up. An evaluation will be useful. BIWTA dredge the Daultdia Baghabari route. But in winter ferry service and vessels carrying fuel and other commodities frequently get stuck. These call for additional measures to reduce/stop siltation.
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