Staff Correspondent

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.”