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 抖阴精品 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.