Efficient river dredging to propel industrial growth: experts

Experts yesterday emphasised sustainable and efficient river dredging and its proper maintenance to improve the country’s inland waterways to propel industrial and socio-economic development.

They described waterways as the cheapest means of transportation and blamed lack of maintenance, weakening upstream flow and human interventions for declining navigable waterways.

Long-term strategic planning needs to be taken for sustainable dredging, while private and foreign investment should be encouraged in the sector with more fiscal and policy incentives, they said.

The experts spoke at a webinar titled “Sustainable River Dredging: Challenges and Way Forward” organised by the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI), according to a press release.

DCCI President Rizwan Rahman, who moderated the discussion, said the number of rivers in Bangladesh was dwindling due to siltation and the falling water flow, affecting inland waterways.

Navigable waterways have manifold effects on the economy as it saves time for container movement and is comparatively cheaper for goods transportation.

“Navigable and well-managed waterways help ease cross-border trade,” he said.

Rahman urged the government to rationalise import duty, value-added tax and advance income tax to cut total tax incidence in importing heavy dredging machinery.

Inland water transport tariffs for cargo are below Tk 1 per tonne-km, whereas it is Tk 4.5 for roads, according to Golam Sadeque, chairman of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA).

Roads account for 80 per cent of the cargo freight movement in Bangladesh. It is 16 per cent for waterways.

While presenting a keynote paper, Ainun Nishat, professor emeritus of Brac University, said a master plan was to be prepared for river and canal-dredging.

“The current practice of dredging operations, both capital and maintenance, needs to be evaluated. Dredging should be done in a sustainable manner so that the economy benefits.”

“For an efficient river management, special emphasis must be on maintenance dredging.”

The private sector can play a major role in dredging operations, Prof Nishat said.

“Public-private partnership can be a useful model for river-dredging, sand extraction, land recovery, land accretion and land reclamation.”

Md Shafiul Islam, a former president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries, called for better coordination among the stakeholders, including the BIWTA, the Bangladesh Water Development Board, ministries and the private sector.

He also urged the government to remove inconsistencies in policies to boost the confidence of the private sector.

State Minister for Shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury said the government had a plan to make 10,000 kilometres of inland riverways navigable.

“As part of the Delta Plan, the government is firmly committed to developing the riverine system.”

He invited the private sector to come forward with more investments in the PPP format to materialise the plan.

The capacity of Mongla Port has widened manifold, easing the pressure on Chattogram port, Chowdhury said, adding that 35 dredgers would be procured soon.

Kabir Bin Anwar, senior secretary of the water resources ministry, said the government was planning to establish a hydrological training and research institute.