Staff Correspondent

Jurists, experts and right activists stressed the need for specific guidelines to protect the ecosystem of the country’s north-eastern haor areas, home to about twenty million people who are deprived of proper education, health and other basic rights.

They made the observation during the inauguration of a two-day first National Haor Congress on Thursday. Representatives form seven districts –– Sylhet, Sunamganj, Habiganj, Moulvibazar, Kishoreganj, Brahmanbaria and Netrakona –– attended the programme.

A Haor Development Board is there, but no visible function of the board has been seen over the years, said the speakers. They demanded prudent policy to protect the country’s 413 haors, which provide sanctuary for about 140 species of fish and scores of species of local and migratory birds.

‘We have to try hard to conserve the wetland,’ said former chief of the caretaker government Justice Habibur Rahman, while inaugurating the congress. ‘For our negligence, a vast portion of the natural water bodies has already been filled and the rivers are going to be filled… As a result, the easiest mode of communication has been stopped,’ he said.

The rich cultural heritage of the country will be under threat if the haors become extinct, he added. Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology vice chancellor AMM Shafiullah said that a data bank should be developed to help the policymakers take steps to preserve the ecosystem of the region.

A resident of Sunamganj district and also the convenor of the Haorbasi Rakkhay Nagarik Udyog, Nirmal Bhattacharya said lack of specific guidelines made the preservation of the region’s ecological system even harder.

About ten million people become jobless for a certain period of a year. Many organisations are working here, but the haor people hardly get any benefit from them, said Nirmal. During the rainy season, all the schools remain closed for four to five months as most of the regions become almost inaccessible due to water all around.

He said physicians do not want to stay in these areas, limiting the people’s access to healthcare service. Senior physicians like to visit up to Sunamganj from Dhaka once a week for private practice. Bangladesh Environment Lawyers’ Association president Syeda Rizwana Hasan pointed out that the laws so far enacted to protect haors or wetlands were often found not applicable considering the local perspectives and the basic needs of the people of the areas.

Former finance minister Abul Mal Abdul Muhit, agriculturist Abdur Razzak, ActionAid country director Farah Kabir and Jalalabad Association president Syed Abdul Muqtadir also spoke at the inaugural session, chaired by Mostafa Jabbar.

Comments

Add New

Write comment
Name:
Email:	We don't publish your mail. See privacy policy.
Title:
	Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.