Govt to resume drives against Dhaka rivers encroachment: Tazul

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DHAKA, July 2, 2020 (BSS) – The government will resume its drives
against encroachment and pollution of rivers in Dhaka and its
adjoining areas in a coordinated way with cooperation of all
stakeholders as per a master plan to bring back its navigability and
aesthetic beauty to enhance their contributions to the country’s
socioeconomic development.

“The government is determined to free all the rivers from pollution
and encroachment to retrieve navigability of the rivers to augment its
aesthetic beauty for their optimum utilization to the socioeconomic
development of the country,” LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Md Tazul
Islam said.

He was presiding over an online meeting of the master plan
formulation committee at his office at the secretariat.

State Minister for Shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury, Local
Government Division Senior Secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed, National River
Conservation Commission Chairman Dr Muzibur Rahman Howlader,
Bangladesh Water Development Board Director General Engineer A. M.
Aminul Haque, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA)
Chairman Commodore Golam Sadeq and Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage
Authority (WAS) Managing Director Engineer Taqsem A Khan joined it.
Welcoming the Shipping Ministry’s move to free the rivers in Dhaka and
its adjoining areas, the LGRD minister said the drive should be
continued to free all rivers of the country including Dhaka from being
grabbed and polluted.

“We will have to remain alert always as the river encroachers think
that the government’s move against grabbing won’t be continued and
they would be able to start their ill efforts of grabbing river
embankments again,” he said.

Turning to water-logging problem in the capital Dhaka, Tazul urged
all concerned to continue their united efforts in coordination with
Dhaka north and south city corporations and the Dhaka WASA as the
citizens do not have to suffer for water-logging by any means during
the monsoon and throughout the year.