CT Online Desk
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on
Monday urged the authorities concerned to keep preservation of the environment
in mind while taking any development plan.
“Since I came to power I asked all to sketch plans for all
cities. Whatever plan we take there should be an emphasis on waste management
and proper maintenance of the flow of water,” she said.
The prime minister was speaking at a meeting on the presentation
of the survey report and the policy decision for the adoption of the related
project in the light of the master plan designed to prevent pollution and
protect the navigability of the rivers around Dhaka at the cabinet room of her
office (PMO).
She said it is very regrettable that the country’s development
programmes were not taken in a planned way in the past.
Those who grabbed power
illegally on 15 August 1975 violating the constitution with arms did not pay
attention to the overall coordinated and planned development of the country,
she said.
“As a result the environmental issues
were neglected and rivers were grabbed.”
Sheikh Hasina mentioned that after
assuming power the aim of her government was to protect the rivers, return the
navigability, and save those from pollution.
“In the name of river training it was a
normal phenomenon to build embankments that heavily harmed fertile crop lands,”
she observed.
The prime minister recalled that during
the first tenure, her government started river dredging and used the silts for
land reclamation. “We have to do dredging and maintain navigability. We have to
go for river dredging to stop river erosion.”
She said the industries that were
constructed beside the rivers usually dump their wastes in the rivers. “All wastes
of the sewerage lines also are dumped in the rivers. There is no plan for waste
treatment. As a result, the pollution has increased.”
Sheikh Hasina said it is very painful
that the Buriganga River stinks due to pollution. “Whatever we do, we have to
keep in mind first the waste management.”
She also suggested setting up small
treatment plants in different parts of Dhaka city to save the rivers around the
capital.
“We have to save our rivers if we want to
save Bangladesh. We have to live with the floods. We have to always keep that
in mind. We need silt that comes with flood water.”
For river training, the prime minister
said the depth of a river has to be considered. “We must create a buffer zone
beside the river aiming to preserve the water that comes during the rainy
season.”
DCT/OL/SMKN/END
