Boat-chain in Ctg to save Karnaphuli

27 April 2009, 18:00 PM

Staff Correspondent, Ctg

Boatmen form lines with boats on the River Karnaphuli in Chittagong yesterday demanding steps to save the river from pollution, siltation and illegal occupation. Photo: Focus Bangla

Boatmen on the Karnaphuli River yesterday formed a boat-chain with a call to save the river from pollution and illegal encroachment. Environmentalists at a rally on a boat during the programme at 11:30am urged the government to improve navigability of the river through capital dredging on which the premier seaport, the lifeline of the country, is located. Lack of regular maintenance and dredging gave rise to chars (alluvial lands) where a section of people are setting up illegal structures, they said. Karnaphuli River Boatmen Welfare Association Federation organized the programme on the river. Several boatmen associations took part in the protest rally. Over three hundred boatmen formed the one-hour long boat-chain tethering their boats with each other covering around one kilometer waterway on the river stretching from Firingibazar Bridgeghat to Avoymitra Ghat. Former President of the Institutions of Engineers Bangladesh (IEB) Chittagong chapter Ali Ashraf, poet and journalist Omar Kaiser, Federation President SM Peyar Ali and General Secretary Shah Alam, among others, addressed the rally. Speakers at the rally underscored the need for improving navigability of Karnaphuli for the sake of country's premier seaport. They said at least fifteen chars have emerged within a three kilometers of area on the river stretching from Shah Amanat Bridge to Karnaphuli estuary hampering boat movement seriously. Hundreds of tonnes of domestic and industrial wastes from the city are dumped into the river through different canals polluting the river seriously, they added. They said the Avoymitra Ghat had remained useless for last three years as the river lost its navigability.