News
Sustainable River dredging & Management necessary for economic advancement: Experts in DCCI Webinar
Experts identified some of the major important issues like green transportation or waterways, river training, capacity building, sustainable dredging in terms of social, economic and environmental perspective, lack of master plan, reduction of tax and vat, adequate budget for river management, proper river training institute discussed in the Webinar on “Sustainable River Dredging: Challenges and Way forward” organized by Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI) on July 31, 2021.
Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury, MP, State Minister for Shipping joined the webinar as the chief guest while Md. Shafiul Islam (Mohiuddin), MP, Former President, FBCCI and Kabir Bin Anwar, Senior Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources joined as special guests. DCCI President Rizwan Rahman chaired and moderated the webinar.
DCCI President Rizwan Rahman in his opening remarks said Bangladesh is a riverine country and waterways play a diverse role in the economy of Bangladesh. Numbers of rivers in Bangladesh are being reduced due to siltation and reduction of stream flow that affects waterways as the cheapest means of transportation. Inland water transport has a great economic impact.
It is high time to improve the waterways for the sake of both industrial and socioeconomic development of the country as Bangladesh is poised to become a developing country by 2026. The 24,000 km waterways come down to 6,000 km in monsoon and 3,600 km during lean period due to dynamic characteristics of the rivers and its effect falls into the economic and ecological state of the country.
Navigable waterways have manifold positive cascading effects on economy as it saves container movement time and is comparatively cheaper for goods transportation. Moreover, navigable and well-managed waterways help easing cross-border trade growth with the neighbouring states. But lack of maintenance, weakening upstream flow and human interventions are some of the common problems for declining navigable waterways.
Government has taken initiatives on capital dredging under the dredging master plan to bring navigability to 10,000 km internal waterways but it is important to monitor the execution process properly through real time monitoring system. Planning of any dredging should be commensurate with land reclamation and land development to get the best outcome. To ensure sustainable development of waterway, the national budget has to rationalize Import duty, Vat and AIT to reduce total tax incidence to import heavy dredging machinery and bring river dredging programme into Fast-track development projects with larger waterway infrastructure budget. Private and foreign investment need to be encouraged with more fiscal and policy incentives for bringing state of the art technology here.
Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury, MP, State Minister for Shipping said government now urges on river management according to the delta plan. We have been successful to bring transparency in this sector especially in the tendering process. We have a plan to make 10,000 km inland river ways navigable. Presently capacity of Mongla Port has been increased manifold and now it eases the pressure on Chittagong port, he added. We have limitations and challenges but we must have to manage our rivers through efficient dredging as these are our natural assets, he said. Government is relentlessly working on sustainable river dredging both in the form of capital dredging and maintenance dredging and 35 more dredgers will be procured soon, he added. As per the delta plan, government is firmly committed to develop the riverine system in the country and to materialize the plan, he invited private sector to come forward with more investments even in the PPP format.
Md. Shafiul Islam (Mohiuddin), MP, Former President, FBCCI urged upon to create better coordination among the stakeholders like BIWTA, water development board, Ministry and private sector. Unplanned dredging may kill the rivers, he said. He suggested to utilize green transportation as it is cheaper and faster and safer. He requested to reduce Tax and VAT on dredging machineries & equipments and urged upon to remove inconsistencies in the policy to create private sector confidence. Considering to be in line with the delta plan, he also stressed on disciplined tendering method. Regarding imposed Tax and VAT he requested NBR and Ministry of Finance to reconsider reduction of vat and tax issues in this sector.
Kabir Bin Anwar, Senior Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources said we need a holistic approach for a sustainable maritime system. Presently we need 500 dredgers but we have 150-156 dredgers in hand, he informed. For capacity building still we are far behind, he added. He said maintenance dredging and capital dredging are in progress but it should be expedited in an efficient and skilled manner. Government has taken various projects to excavate rivers, Haors, Baors and Bils in the country for better navigability. Government is planning to establish a hydrological training and research institute, he informed. He also invited private sector to come forward for capital dredging. He then underscored importance on closer cooperation between BIWTA and Water Development Board.
Ainun Nishat, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, BRAC University presented the keynote paper. He said there are two types of dredging like maintenance dredging and capital dredging. A Master Plan is to be prepared for river and khal dredging in Bangladesh. He also said that dredging should be done in a sustainable manner so that economy can be benefited as rivers not only carry water but these also carry life. For an efficient river management, special emphasis must be put on maintenance dredging, he urged. Private sector can play a major role in dredging operation, he added. He also underscored importance of investments on dredging and de-siltation works. Current practice of dredging operations, both capital and maintenance, needs to be evaluated, urgently, he further said. To create skilled manpower he urged for establishing river training institute. Private dredging operators must be trained on sustainability issues, he reiterated. PPP can be a useful model for River dredging, sand extraction, land recovery, land accretion and land reclamation, he added. Rules and guidelines for sand dredging from river beds should be updated and followed strictly.
Abu Saleh Khan, Executive Director, Institute of Water Modelling (IWM) said total river basin system should be analyzed in an efficient manner. Dredgers today are highly sophisticated and modernized but they need proper training for skill development and capacity building. Private sector should come up with more investment in this sector, he added. He also urged upon sustainable dredging and long term strategic planning in the maritime sector. For sustainable dredging, dredgers have to have idea on soil condition, river system, stream nature and ecological system. Moreover, there should have been a post-dredging evaluation system in the policy.
M A Jabbar, Managing Director, DBL Group said sustainability is a major issue world-wide. He emphasized on training human resources and investment in technology. He also put emphasis on the need of private sector investment in this sector. He also termed lack of transparency, planning, knowledge sharing issues and implementation as some of the major challenges. For a sustainable river dredging, policy makers should take a long term strategy, he suggested.
Robert Hennessy, Vice President, Goup Civil Engineering, PSA International Pte Ltd. said river networks in Bangladesh are still an untapped asset for the country. River ways are cost effective, cheaper and it reduces pressure on land roads. Bangladesh needs adequate sustainable capacity for larger vessels to come into the waterways. And in that case depth of river is important, he added. Moreover, economic, social and environmental sustainability is more important in terms of sustainable river dredging. He termed Bangladesh as one of the largest delta systems in the world that need proper planning and capacity development.
Commodore Golam Sadeque, NGP, ndc, ncc, psc, BN, Chairman BIWTA said that inland water transport is the most effective mode to move large quantity of cargo. Government is going to establish a training institute in Narayangonj, he informed. Inland water transport tariffs for cargo are below 1 taka per ton-km whereas for road it is 4.5 taka per ton-km. for cargo freight movement in Bangladesh, road is used by 80% whereas waterways are used by only 16%. For better outcome in this sector he suggested to allocate at least 1.5% of GDP in the budget which is 0.4% right at this moment. The sector opens up opportunities of joint ventures and employment generation. He also agreed the lack of master plan for sectoral development.
DCCI Senior Vice President N K A Mobin, FCS, FCA gave vote of thanks. DCCI Director Khairul Majid Mahmud, Managing Director of Energypac Ltd. and DCCI’s Convenor Nurul Akter also spoke on the occasion.
Published on: 2021-07-31