Laws will be strictly enforced to protect rivers: Rizwana Hasan
Syeda Rizwana Hasan, a leading environmentalist and advisor in Bangladesh’s Interim Government, in charge of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MOEFCC) and the Ministry of Water Resources (MOWR), said that the law will be strictly enforced to protect the country’s rivers.
She said this while speaking as the chief guest at an event organized in Dhaka on October 14.
Syeda Rizwana Hasan said that the rivers of Bangladesh should be protected, and the encroached rivers should be restored. Strict enforcement of the law will be initiated on target.
People’s cooperation is needed in this activity. A cost-effective plan will be formulated to depollute the river. The campaign against polythene plastic will begin soon.
The water resource advisor highlighted that rivers are important natural resources connected to our culture and livelihoods. As part of ensuring a healthy environment for future generations, rivers must be depolluted. Everyone has to work together to protect and depollute the river.
She said, ‘I have received the most complaints in my one month and two weeks tenure, about sand extraction from the river. There is a river in Sylhet called Jadukata, which not only lifts the sand but cuts it to the river banks.”
‘After 25 people were jailed and fined for sand mining, I believed the issue was resolved. However, I recently discovered that sand mining has resumed,” she astonished.
ow if we strictly enforce the law, then stand by us. If the law is not enforced strictly, it is not possible for us to break this criminality.
Muhammad Monir Hossain, Chairman of Bangladesh River Foundation, spoke at the event, among others, Nayoka Martinez Backstrom, Sweden Embassy’s First Secretary for Environment and Climate Change; Prof. Dr. Abdur Rob Mollah, Chairman of the Nature Conservation Management; Dr MD Manjurul Kibriya, coordinator of Halda River Research Laboratory; Engineer Md Habibur Rahman, President, Bangladesh River Navigation Team; HM Sumon, Chairman Environment and River Development Foundation; Sheikh Didarul Islam Chowdhury, Secretary of the Karnaphuli Protection Council and AKM Arif Uddin, Director, BIWTA .
Documentary films made on the rivers of Bangladesh were shown in the event. Besides, various levels of environmentalists, academicians and civil society representatives were present.
