Save south-western region from man-made disaster
Speakers tell Satkhira workshop on water management
Kenesy Yakohama of ADB addressing the workshop.Photo: STAR
Speakers at a view exchange meeting yesterday urged the government to re-excavate silted rivers in South-Western region of the country to restore the ecology and ensure livelihood of about 50, 00,000 people in the area. They also urged the local people to launch a mass movement to dredge silted rivers Kabodak, Marichchap, Betna, Harihar and Bhadra, which will solve the water-logging problem and make vast lands in Satkhira, Jessore, Kushtia and Khulna cultivable again. The meeting on “Water resource management in South-Western region: People's perspective and participation”, jointly organised by Pani Committee (water committee), a local civic body, Uttaran a local NGO. Principal Safiqul Islam chaired the meeting held Mobarakpur in Tala upazila . It was also addressed by Kenesy Yakohama of ADB, Neils Veeniyas of Netherlands embassy and Prof. Abu Ahmed. They said, over the years, encroachment by land grabbers and bamboo barriers erected by so-called fish farmers hastened death of the rivers. This is a man made disaster, created by some infleuntials backed by political parties, they said. Successive governments did not take any step to free the rivers from the illegal encroachment despite demands made on numerous occasions by people of all classes since 2001, they said.
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