[🇧🇩] Save the Rivers/Forests/Hills-----Save the Environment

[Saif]

From flowing lifelines to dry beds

Authorities must prioritise river protection

www.thedailystar.net

From flowing lifelines to dry beds
Authorities must prioritise river protection

Visual: Star

It is alarming that at least 79 of the 1,156 government-listed rivers in Bangladesh have either dried up or are in the process of doing so. According to a recent study by the Rivers and Delta Research Centre (RDRC), all these rivers are heavily silted and either fully or partially dry up during the lean season, primarily due to upstream water diversion. As a result, livelihoods, agriculture, and local biodiversity are under threat.

It is no secret that under the previous government, encroachment—particularly by influential quarters—became rampant, with little legal action taken against those responsible. The RDRC study has found that large portions of several rivers have vanished in recent years due to unchecked encroachment. So, we urge the authorities to take steps to protect these rivers by enforcing strict measures against encroachers, reducing pollution, preventing erosion, and restoring their ecosystems. A broader plan is also needed to facilitate and promote water transportation, which experts say is crucial for river conservation.

River transportation offers several other complimentary advantages as well. For instance, the study highlights that waterways are the most economical means of transport, with rivers and canals covering 24,000 km across the country. Road transport costs range from Tk 2.81 to Tk 3.51 per tonne per kilometre, while rail transport costs Tk 1.96 per tonne per kilometre. In contrast, water transport costs only Tk 1.12 per tonne per kilometre. Given this cost advantage, the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) should introduce more riverine routes and encourage their use to reduce pressure on roads and railways.

However, even these measures may not be enough. Dams and upstream water diversions have altered the natural flow of our rivers, making it increasingly difficult for millions of Bangladeshis to fish, farm, and transport goods. As water availability in these rivers becomes increasingly unpredictable, entire communities that depend on them are struggling to survive. Beyond human impact, wildlife in these regions is also suffering due to habitat destruction, further disrupting the natural balance.

Therefore, the government must adopt a more proactive approach in engaging with upper riparian countries—particularly India—to protect our interests through effective diplomacy. For years, Bangladesh has failed to secure its rightful share of transboundary water, and this urgently needs to change. Strengthening water diplomacy is essential not only for the sustainable management of the country's rivers but also for ensuring their very survival.​

 

[Saif]

1,659 factories discharge waste to Dhaka rivers

At least 1,659 industrial units in a recent count have been found discharging untreated wastewater into canals, rivers and other open waterbodies, aggravating the condition of the already heavily polluted waterbodies.

www.newagebd.net

1,659 factories discharge waste to Dhaka rivers
Rashad Ahamad 22 March, 2025, 00:02

Untreated sewage is being released through a pipeline into the Buriganga River, contributing to the pollution in one of Bangladesh’s most contaminated rivers, in Islambagh’s Beribadh area of Dhaka. The photo is taken on Friday. | Md Saurav
World Water Day today

At least 1,659 industrial units in a recent count have been found discharging untreated wastewater into canals, rivers and other open waterbodies, aggravating the condition of the already heavily polluted waterbodies.

According to the Department of Environment, all these polluting factories are situated in and around Dhaka city and in different districts under the Dhaka division.

Pollution of waterbodies concentrate in the Dhaka division, experts said, adding that substantial information and data on water pollution outside this division is not much available so far.

Green activists allege that pollution of river water particularly intensifies around Dhaka city as the authorities have miserably failed to stop older sources of pollution, while new more sources have been added to the old ones.

The rivers around Dhaka city are so extremely polluted people of the riverbanks can neither use the water for meeting their daily necessities nor can the aquatic lives survive there.

Amid the reality, Bangladesh is set to celebrate World Water Day 2025 today.

Regarding the source of water pollution, Waterkeepers Bangladesh coordinator Sharif Jamil said that industrial waste and domestic waste are the main sources of pollution of the country’s rivers and other open waterbodies.

The Department of Environment officials recently said that they served final notice to the 1,659 errant industrial units they had listed releasing wastewater in the open waterbodies.

All these units would be shut down if they failed to stop the pollution, said DoE officials.

As for the causes of pollution, the officials said that while some factories did not have effluent treatment plants, some others did not run their ETPs regularly mainly to save money.

‘Many factories pollute water even after having ETPs to save cost,’ said DoE director general Md Kamruzzaman, adding that they would take tougher punitive actions against them.

DoE statistics show that of the water polluting factories, 128 are located under the Dhaka metropolitan area and the rest 1,531 are in Dhaka division.

Of them, 499 factories are in Dhaka district, 380 in Narayanganj, 519 are in Gazipur, 129 are in Narshingdi, one each in Tangail and Gopalganj districts.

DoE officials said that they had particularly identified textiles, washing and dyeing, and pharmaceuticals factory units and hospitals and clinics to lack ETPs.

Enamul Haque Shimul, director of Mita Fabrics Limited at Rupganj upazila in Narayanganj, said that like many other factories they also received the DoE notice.

‘We have an effluent treatment plant at the factory and no-objection certificate also. But the DoE, even it finds small anomalies, it serves notices. It’s a regular thing,’ he said.

Municipal solid waste and sewage waste are two other major sources of river pollution, green activists said.

They allege that river pollution has worsened over the years as the authorities have failed to take effective measures to curb it although they are very much aware of the situation.

A study conducted conducted in December 2024 by the DoE and the River and Delta Research Centre, a private research institution, using satellite imagery and field surveys has identified the extent of pollution in the Buriganga, Turag, Shitalakkhya and Balu rivers that surround the Dhaka city.

The study report, published in January this year, identified 1,024 pollution points, mainly linked to industrial waste discharge, municipal waste dumping, sewerage outlets, connecting canals and solid waste dumping stations.

In 2020, the number of identified pollution points was 608, the report mentioned.

In 2022, however, the National River Conservation Commission identified 693 pollution sources.

According to the DoE and River and Delta Research Centre study, 102 industrial waste release points discharge untreated pollutants into the rivers, while 75 municipal sewerage lines and 216 private sewerage outlets contribute to the contamination.

The study also highlights 38 sluice gates and 62 service canals acting as pollutant conduits. Additionally, 144 large waste dump stations and 297 smaller dumping points have been identified as major contributors to indiscriminate waste disposal. Also 12 dockyards along with 46 factory units and 36 kitchen markets have also been cited as key pollution sources.

Environmentalist Syeda Rizwana Hasan, also adviser for the ministry of environment, forest and climate change to the interim government, said that inaction of government agencies over the years resulted in the intense pollution of the rivers surrounding the capital.

The interim government undertook initiatives to stop the rampant pollution, she said, adding that revival of the city canals was part of the plan.

In the first phase, 19 canals were targeted for restoration, protection from pollution and encroachment, Rizwana said.

‘The government is preparing an action plan to restore the Buriganga and other rivers with the Asian Development Bank support. Over time, the rivers will regenerate,’ she further said.

The DoE and River and Delta Research Centre study identified 525 pollution sources in the Buriganga, 97 in the Turag, 173 in the Shitalakkhya, and 33 in the Balu River.

Although the government relocated the heavily polluting tannery industry from Hazaribagh to Harindhara in Savar in 2017, the pollution level now remains higher than it was in 2010.

The relocation project, which aimed to free the Buriganga from pollution, cost Tk 1,078.71 crore.

Under the Buriganga revival project, the Bangladesh Water Development Board has so far spent over Tk 1,100 crore since 2010, but all the initiatives have borne hardly any fruit.

Sharif Jamil alleges that the government’s piecemeal measures have been marred by corruption failed to bring any tangible results.

According to the DoE’s latest 2024 Surface and Ground Water Quality Report, the water quality in Dhaka’s rivers remained ‘alarming’ for 11 months of the year, except for July, the peak monsoon period.

The DoE monitors water pollution at 102 points across 29 rivers and three lakes nationwide.

The report has also found dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, and chemical oxygen demand levels at critically low level, sometimes dropping to 0.0 milligrams per litre, far below the acceptable levels for most of the year.

Joshadhan Pramanik, founder and coordinator of the Project for Ensuring Food and Shelter for Birds in Banpara, Natore, alleges that the entire drainage networks in the country discharge sewerage and other waste into rivers, posing severe public health risks.

He said that since 2017, he has been urging the authorities to stop connecting sewer lines to rivers, but his appeals have been ignored outright.

In November 2023, the Local Government Division instructed city corporations and water supply and sewerage authorities to cut off drainage connections to rivers, but no effective actions came so far.

River experts while saying that the number of pollution sources and their intensity of pollution increased over the years, identified public agencies, including Dhaka WASA, as among the top polluters of the rivers.

Sharif Jamil stressed a comprehensive approach to address pollution.

‘The government must ensure that no public agency pollutes the water and that industrial units comply with environmental regulations,’ he said.​

 

[Saif]

Govt should have woken up to conserve rivers long ago

SAVING rivers is, no doubt, an uphill task. In a situation, where rivers are encroached on, choked and strangled in all the manners that an absence of concrete plans to save the rivers allow, with all quarters, even...

www.newagebd.net

Govt should have woken up to conserve rivers long ago
22 March, 2025, 00:00

SAVING rivers is, no doubt, an uphill task. In a situation, where rivers are encroached on, choked and strangled in all the manners that an absence of concrete plans to save the rivers allow, with all quarters, even public agencies, joining in, it is, indeed, so. But, it does not necessarily suggest that there is no point in trying to save the rivers. What the situation, rather, suggests that there should be adequately stringent measures, well grounded in the required earnestness, especially on part of the government, to effectively and sustainably protect and conserve the rivers. All the while, there have only been discussions, debates, instructions, legal proceedings and instructions to save the rivers, but nothing of them appears to have ever got off the ground well. And, all this results in continued encroachment on the rivers and an unabated pollution of the river water. Rivers become moribund and they, finally, die, perhaps. The photograph that New Age published on its front page on March 21, which shows the erection of structures bordering the demarcation pillars on the bank of the River Sitalakhya in Narayanganj is only an added example of such encroachment efforts.

This is not only another example of encroachment on the Sitalakhya, but there are potentially hundreds of similar incidents taking place along all rivers, major or minor, perhaps more in cities and in outlying areas. And, there is now way that the authorities responsible for the protection of the rivers are not in the know of them. They conveniently choose to look the other way, allowing the depredation of the rivers to perpetually continue. The case of river protection or conservation has traditionally been episodes of drive, ineffective implementation of the plans that are mostly viewed as flawed and no sustainable plans to keep the river land already reclaimed well protected. All this results in recurrent incidents of encroachment after some days or months after reclamation drives. What appears to be lying at the heart of the problem is the absence of the will of the government or the agencies that the government invests with the task of reclamation and conservation. Nothing seems to be effectively getting off even after the court issues order after order, the government issues instruction after instruction and agencies implement plan after plan. Whilst what appears lacking is the earnestness that the government should show in the tasks, corruption and clout, moneyed or political, is also blamed for the situation.

The government should have woken up to reclaim and conserve the rivers long ago. It is, therefore, time that the government wasted no time in taking the right measures.​

 

[Saif]

WATER RESOURCES: From global to local context

WATER is life. It is the foundation of human civilisation that is a central element in socio-cultural and economic activities. Water is a finite natural resource, where both quantity and quality are crucial to the environment, which...

www.newagebd.net

WATER RESOURCES: From global to local context
by Md Sohrab Ali 21 March, 2025, 22:31

Plastic bags dumped along a river stretch in Dhaka. | Agence France-Presse/Munir uz Zaman

WATER is life. It is the foundation of human civilisation that is a central element in socio-cultural and economic activities. Water is a finite natural resource, where both quantity and quality are crucial to the environment, which encompasses all living and non-living elements. It is a fundamental input in food production, essential for household needs, energy generation, industrial production and the functioning of water-dependent ecosystems that sustain the flow of ecosystem services.

Globally, water resources are under unprecedented pressure because of a rapid demographic growth, already exceeding eight billion, which has led to ab increasing demand and competition for water alongside economic developments. The strain on the planet’s water resources is exacerbated by multiple effects of climate change, poor management and pollution. Water crises have played a pivotal role in both peace-making and conflict, sometimes even threatening national sovereignty. Water diplomacy is, thus, an important factor in geopolitics. Additionally, water crises trigger forced migration, social disparity by way of increasing living costs, production failures and famine resulting from the degradation of natural resources and biodiversity loss, ultimately leading to social unrest and instability.

Access to water is a human right. Yet, 2.2 billion people live without safely managed drinking water services, with devastating consequences for their lives and wider society. Per capita water availability is declining. By 2025, it is estimated that 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions experiencing ‘absolute’ water scarcity, with less than 500 cubic meters a year a person, while two-thirds of the global population could be living under ‘stress’ conditions, with water between 500 and 1000 cubic meters a year a person. Looking ahead, climate change and increasing bio-energy demands are expected to further complicate the already complex relationship between global development and water demand.

The declining trend in freshwater availability worldwide is expected to have significant economic and political impacts, raising serious concerns about achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. The world will need to produce an estimated 60 per cent more food by 2050 to ensure global food security. Against this backdrop, the United Nations observes World Water Day annually on March 22, focusing on the importance of freshwater and inspiring action to address the global water crisis. Water is also at the heart of climate change adaptation, serving as the crucial link between the climate system, human society and the environment.

Bangladesh is not exempt from this global freshwater crisis. Yet, there is no clear data on per capita freshwater availability. Furthermore, there is neither an accurate estimate of the country’s future freshwater needs nor a clear assessment of the potential for water resource development. However, there is clear evidence of a widening gap between water supply and demand as well as increasing river pollution. Numerous reports highlight the shrinking of freshwater bodies such as rivers, bils, canals, etc because of siltation, drying up, encroachment, and waste dumping. Consequently, Bangladesh risks losing its identity as a ‘riverine country.’ The degradation of surface water and erratic rainfall because of climate change have led to an increasing dependence on groundwater abstraction for both agriculture and urban life, causing alarming declines in the water table in areas such as the Barind Tract, Dhaka and Gazipur.

Bangladesh faces immense challenges in meeting the growing demands for food and other resources from its expanding population, all while contending with diminishing natural resources such as land and water. This issue is largely due to the failure to align the country’s ecological carrying capacity with population planning, urbanisation and industrialisation. Additionally, the inadequate integration of science with policy (laws and regulations) and weak enforcement mechanisms have exacerbated the problem.

Milestone events in the history of global environmental degradation include the Neolithic Revolution (~12,000 years ago), the Industrial Revolution (1750s) and the Green Revolution (1960s), all of which have sometimes caused irreversible damage to the environment and loss of biodiversity. Across the globe, there are numerous examples of water body pollution, including the Thames River in England, the Rhine in Europe, the Han in South Korea, the Singapore River and Dokai Bay in Japan, where indiscriminate dumping of municipal, industrial and agricultural waste led to severe contamination. The nations, despite achieving financial prosperity with per capita incomes of around $26,000, paid a heavy ecological and human cost before eventually undertaking extensive clean-up efforts.

Many unknowingly followed the flawed principle of ‘grow first, clean later.’ Similarly, Bangladesh embarked on industrialisation in the 1980s without learning lessons from past environmental destruction although it had already been evident that economic development and environmental protection could go hand-in-hand. The government has declared 13 areas, including four rivers around the Dhaka city, as ‘ecologically critical areas.’ They are ecologically dysfunctional and no longer capable of providing essential ecosystem services. Despite the devastation, Bangladesh’s current per capita income stands at about $2,738.

Dissolved oxygen is a crucial indicator of water system health as all aquatic life depends on it for respiration. Dissolved oxygen levels are inversely related to pollution levels in water bodies. In February 2025, average dissolved oxygen levels (mg/litre) in the Buriganga (0.29), the Sitalakkhya (0.41), the Turag (1.3) and the Balu (2.13 in December 2024) were significantly below the Environmental Quality Standard of 5 mg/litre.

A study conducted in 2012–2021 showed that pollution load (biochemical oxygen demand) has been gradually increasing in the River Dhaleshwari, with pollution levels far exceeding the Environmental Quality Standard, reaching 6 mg/litre, particularly during the dry winter season (~16 mg/litre) compared with the wet season (~10 mg/litre), causing a corresponding decline in dissolved oxygen below the Environmental Quality Standard.

In December 2024, dissolved oxygen levels in the Jamuna (~6 mg/litre) and the Padma (~7 mg/litre) were slightly above the Environmental Quality Standard. Rivers in Bangladesh’s south are increasingly affected by salinity, which worsens during the dry season (eg, the Bhairab, with ~12 decisiemens per meter, the Rupsha with ~15 dS/m, and the Khakshiali with ~19 dS/m) whereas good quality water for irrigation and crop production should have salinity levels below 2 dS/m.

The Meghna, a tidal river, is facing similar pollution challenges. From Narayanganj launch terminal (where the Sitalakkhya meets the Meghna) and downstream, dissolved oxygen levels are significantly below the Environmental Quality Standard. But, the levels improve downstream towards Moahonpur launch terminal (5.68 mg/L), Ekhlaspur launch terminal (6.83 mg/L) and Chandpur. Additionally, NH4 as N (0.63–3.54 mg/L) and PO4 as P (0.86–4.0 mg/L) were far higher than the EQS thresholds of 0.3 mg/litre and 0.5 mg/litre. Further investigation is needed, but immediate attention is required to save the Meghna from pollution. Otherwise, the growing gap between water demand and supply for households, industry and agriculture will only worsen.

The major causes of water resource degradation include: the dumping of municipal, industrial and agricultural waste into water bodies and illegal land-filling; reduced upstream water flow; decreased water-holding capacity because of siltation and encroachment; climate change-induced erratic rainfall and increased evapotranspiration; a lack of public awareness; and the over-abstraction and misuse of groundwater.

A holistic approach is needed, encompassing proper environmental management, pollution control, regulatory updates, strengthened enforcement, linking ecological carrying capacity to development, and integrating environmental considerations into public and private sector projects to save water resources. Additionally, initiatives such as river restoration, rainwater harvesting and improved water use efficiency must be prioritised. Ultimately, safeguarding interests requires environmental consciousness and sustainable resource management.

Dr Md Sohrab Ali is additional director general at the environment department.​