Each year some 10,000 hectares of land in Bangladesh are swallowed by the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Meghna and their tributaries or spoilt by river erosion. But the rivers can be ‘trained’ to prevent this. Plans can be implemented to check the spread of the rivers. Also, the experiences of other countries such as Holland show that it is not always best policy to only fight against nature. In order to be most successful, it is imperative also to ‘Build with Nature’. And that principle needs to be applied more vigorously than other countries to Bangladesh.

This approach, Building with Nature, has huge potential for river management, as well as for the formation of new lands in Bangladesh. An example: In the 1960’s two cross dams were constructed near Noakhali. Today, these dams have led to the creation of over 100,000 hectares of new land. If this principle of Building with Nature is applied actively and consistently, Bangladesh can gain new land every year. By harnessing the sediments carried by the rivers, Bangladesh can outpace sea-level rise.

Bangladesh needs better water management. In order to do so, the country needs stronger planning and implementation agencies and capacities. But relevant organizations in Bangladesh are struggling due to lack of manpower and lack of resources. This needs to be addressed. Food security and climate change are staring us in the face. Bangladesh needs to be much more actively engaged in a frameworks of cooperation with Holland that has had the most success in training rivers and accreting lands in the coastal areas. Significant allocations will have to be made in the national budgets progressively from now on to spend on river training and land accretion.

Plans should be framed urgently to acquire financing for a comprehensive 20-30 year development vision for the water sector in Bangladesh. The plans for their effectiveness will have to be both domestically financed and donor driven. And should provide for comprehensive and not stand alone projects.

The plans will need to be targeted for implementation over a period of decades. This means that consecutive governments must commit to them. This also means that the political parties of today must commit to the principle of it. Visionary parties are needed, which think beyond typical party boundaries and which deliver results. Such parties can count on the continued support of the people.

A leading vernacular daily focused recently on lands rising from the sea in the southern coastal area of Noakhali district. The rate of accretion of new lands is considered to be some 30 square kilometer a year. At this rate, new lands roughly the size of two districts of the country are expected to rise in the next two decades , according to the report.

Already, substantial territories have surfaced in the coastal areas of Bangladesh. Some of these places have completely surfaced and have human habitations on them while others remain submerged during tides and emerge with the ebbing of the tide. The latter types of accreted lands are likely to gain in elevation to be permanently joined to the mainland.

Lands have already emerged from the sea in the coastal areas and more lands from the sea will hopefully rise in the future. But the natural process is a long one. It can be hastened and the technology for it is not so prohibitive or complex either. For Bangladesh, it involves only quickening the process of accretion by establishing structures like cross dams to speed up the rate of deposition of silt in areas that have accreted or nearly accreted.

Bangladesh is likely to get a generous response from the international community in matters of fund availability and technical supports if it can show that it is really keen to accrete more lands and has put the endeavour under a systematic policy framework. Holland is one country which has the most experience in getting lands out of the sea

Bangladesh may not have to embark on projects on the same scale as were carried out in Holland because of its relatively better elevation. It can use its huge reservoir of cheap manpower to build simpler projects to get the same kind of results as were achieved in Holland. But for this purpose it needs to engage in a time-bound and result oriented framework of assistance and consultation with that country. Besides, the government of Bangladesh ought to also appeal to the international community to provide funds to it for the purpose.

It would be only conscionable for the developed countries that emit the most greenhouse gases to help out Bangladesh in projects designed to secure its coastal areas and for their enlargement. The government needs to appropriately sensitize these countries about our expectation of appropriate assistance from them.