Take long-term plan to check erosion: PM

Speaking at the meeting, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia stressed a pragmatic plan to build an embankment on the Bangali river at Shariakandi to contain its course, which may, in the long run, come close to the Jamuna.

She also called upon the authorities concerned to take up a long-term and an effective plan for checking erosion.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman, LGRD Minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, Agriculture Minister MK Anwar, Relief and Disaster Managment Minister Chowdhury Kamal Ibne Yousuf, Shipping Minister Col (Retd) Akbar Hossain, Water Resource Minister Maj (Retd) Abdul Hafiz, State Minister Gautam Chakravarty, PM's Political Secretaries Harris Chowdhury and Mosaddek Ali were present at the meeting.

The prime minister in her deliberations reminded that the poor are the first to be affected by river erosion and asked the authorities concerned to take up a long-term effective programme to check the intensity of the natural disaster.

It was presented in the meeting that a total of 10,680 organisations, involving about 40 per cent women, were now working throughout the country under water-management projects.

Some 639 irrigation, protection embankment, water logging and land reclamation projects have been implemented by the ministry.

Nearly 16.3 lakh hectares of land have been brought under irrigation through 28 big and medium-sized, and 218 small-scale projects.

The flood-protection embankments covered 70.1 lakh hectares and helped an additional production of 85.35 lakh tonnes of various crops. The embankments have also saved 51.20 lakh hectares from perennial floods.