Syeda Rizwana Hasan, adviser to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the Ministry of Water Resources, has said hilsa is not going to India as a gift but as an export. The Bangladesh government will get the export earnings, which are not a sum to be taken lightly. "Those who want this hilsa also gave a lot of support during the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement. We all saw that," she said.

She said this in reply to journalists' questions on Monday, 23 September, after visiting the collapsed Musapur regulator and river-erosion areas in Companiganj upazila of Noakhali.

Syeda Rizwana Hasan said unchecked sand extraction from rivers has turned into banditry, and this banditry by the sand grabbers must be stopped now.

The adviser said: "We have come to the field so that there is no separate identity between the people and the government. People and the government have to come together to solve problems, so that a proper solution can be found soon."

She said that wherever there is sand in a river, deputy commissioners declare sand quarries (balumahal) with revenue in mind, despite hundreds of objections from people. Just as there is scope to declare a sand quarry, there is scope to abolish one. The government is considering restraining sand extractors and dredging rivers itself.

The water resources adviser said the reason for coming to the bank of the Musapur river was to see people's problems through their eyes rather than through the government's lens. "We came to the riverside and listened to local people. By the government's count, 30,000 people lose everything to river erosion every year; by unofficial counts, more than one lakh people are ruined."

Noting that the Musapur regulator is needed to stop the intrusion of salt water here, she said a regulator cannot be built overnight. "There is a process. Even if we want to build it quickly, it will take two to three years. Local people have proposed removing the sand from the char that has formed here. The river needs capital dredging as well as maintenance dredging. The government has to think about both the regulator and dredging."

Water Resources Secretary Nazmul Ahsan, Bangladesh Water Development Board director general Muhammad Amirul Haque Bhuiyan, Noakhali Deputy Commissioner Khandaker Istiak Ahmed, the Water Development Board's Noakhali executive engineer Munshi Amir Faisal, Supreme Court lawyer Barrister Khaja Tanvir Ahmed and senior district administration officials were present.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.