Bangladesh's rivers under encroachment and pollution: a researcher's call to rescue them

Most of Bangladesh's rivers have been left dead or half-dead by encroachment and pollution, and now is the time to rescue them. That was the argument of researcher and former college principal Dr Forkan Ali in an opinion piece published by Jagonews24 on 12 January 2025. He set out a region-by-region list of rivers, described how they are grabbed and polluted, and called on everyone to speak out against illegal encroachers.

The writer noted that nearly all of the country's towns, cities and trading centres grew up on rivers: Dhaka on the Buriganga, Narayanganj on the Shitalakshya, Chattogram on the Karnaphuli and Mymensingh on the Old Brahmaputra. In areas without roads or railways, he wrote, rivers are the main route for travel and transport.

Dr Ali put the number of large and small rivers at 230 (700 counting rivers and tributaries) and wrote that most of them are now dead or half-dead. Counts differ from source to source. Banglapedia, the national encyclopedia, says Bangladesh has about 700 rivers including tributaries, and that all its rivers, streams, creeks and channels together run to about 24,140 km. At a seminar in Dhaka in September 2023, the National River Conservation Commission put the total at 1,008 rivers, with more than 20 flowing through every district and the most, 97, in Sunamganj.

The writer counted 57 rivers that flow through two countries. According to Banglapedia, 54 of these shared rivers enter Bangladesh from India and three, the Sangu, Matamuhuri and Naf, from Myanmar.

No policy governs how rivers are named, the writer pointed out: the same river or branch is known by different names in different places, and the rivers of the south split into so many channels that each cannot always be named separately. With that caveat he gave a regional list. By his count Dinajpur has 18 rivers, Rajshahi 10, Bogura 7, the Dhaka region 18, Sylhet 36, Kushtia 4, greater Faridpur 6 and the Khulna region 71.

The list includes the Buriganga, Turag, Balu, Dhaleshwari and Shitalakshya around Dhaka; the Surma, Kushiyara, Manu and Khowai in Sylhet; the Mahananda and Ganges in Rajshahi; the Karatoya and Bangali in Bogura; the Mathabhanga and Gorai in Kushtia; the Madhumati and Arial Khan in Faridpur; and the Rupsha, Pasur, Shibsa and Kapotaksha in the Khulna region.

Rivers are grabbed in Bangladesh just as land and chars are, the writer argued. He named the Karnaphuli, Surma, Kirtankhola, Karatoya and Rupsha among the many town rivers that have been encroached on, and warned that the country risks being left without rivers. He also noted that the government's river recovery drives were continuing.

A list drawn up by the National River Conservation Commission gives a sense of the scale: Prothom Alo reported in August 2019 that the commission had named 42,423 people who had encroached on rivers across the country.

Pollution, in the writer's view, is as great a threat as grabbing. Chemical fertiliser applied to farmland washes into rivers with rain and floodwater; launches, steamers and engine boats leak oil; and unplanned sewerage and waste from riverside factories and tanneries foul the water. He wrote that many species of fish and aquatic plants have disappeared as a result, and that rural rivers are going the same way.

Banglapedia likewise describes the country's surface water as extensively polluted by industrial and urban waste, agrochemicals, sewage and seawater intrusion, with the Buriganga a typical example. The river is only 27 km long but is an important waterway for Dhaka's launches and country boats; in the dry season, Banglapedia says, the dissolved oxygen in its water falls very low or disappears.

Dr Ali concluded that because the lives, livelihoods and progress of most people in the country depend on rivers, their problems need long-term solutions. Now is the time to speak out against illegal encroachers, he wrote, urging everyone to come forward to rescue the rivers.

Photo: David Brewer / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Sources: Jagonews24, Banglapedia, The Financial Express, Prothom Alo