Gaibandha
Why navigability couldn't be restored despite spending billions of taka
Many rivers in Bangladesh require dredging. Numerous rivers are suffering from a lack of navigability. As a result, during the dry season, navigation becomes impossible in these rivers, while in the rainy season, they overflow and cause flooding. A recent survey revealed that the majority of the country's rivers are facing navigability issues. The Old Brahmaputra River has been suffering from such a crisis for a long time. To address this, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) began dredging the river in 2019. However, after six years of dredging, not only has the water flow not improved, but the river’s course has been diverted in at least three places. In some areas, sand from the dredging was dumped directly into the river in an unplanned manner, while in others, the main flow was redirected to occupy land. As a result, hundreds of people have lost homes and farmland due to river erosion.