All must work together to prevent river encroachment, pollution: Minister

Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Saber Hossain Chowdhury today said all should work together to prevent river encroachment and pollution.

“If we can’t save rivers, we will not get the desired benefits. For the sustainable development of the country more importance should be given on water, salinity and climate. If we talk about river governance, climate change and everything involves water,” he said.

The minister was addressing a roundtable discussion on “Climate Change, Water and Sanitation” organized at Kalbela Conference Room in New Market of the capital.

Saber Hossain Chowdhury said, “We have adopted Green and Climate Resilience Development Policy through the Ministry of Planning. All the plans and investments in Bangladesh regarding climate change will be implemented on one platform.”

The minister said Taka 37,000 crore have been allocated through 25 ministries to deal with the climate crisis in the current financial year.

Chaired by Kalbela editor and publisher Santosh Sharma, the meeting was addressed, among others, by Member of Parliament of Dhaka-10 Constituency Ferdous Ahmed, Additional Chief Engineer of Directorate of Public Health Engineering Tushar Mohan Sadhu Khan, Country Director of Water Aid Bangladesh Hasin Jahan and Professor Mujibur Rahman of United International University.

Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies Director (Research) Mahfuz Kabir presented the keynote paper.