Clearing illegal dockyards on Buriganga

We are happy that Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) has finally started destroying dockyards that were set up illegally on the bank of Buriganga River. On March 30, two illegally built dockyards were destroyed by a team of BIWTA. As reported by this newspaper, about 70 dockyards around Dhaka and Narayanganj have encroached on the river for decades, substantially narrowing the river channel. These dockyards managed to operate for so long because their owners tend to be politically influential people.

In the aforementioned case, the two destroyed dockyards were owned by two former lawmakers from BNP and JP. This also begs the question whether the authorities chose them because their owners are not currently in power. The dockyards were set up only one and a half years ago, whereas there are others that have operated with impunity for years. We hope that the joint director of BIWTA who led Friday's drive will live up to his promise and evict all illegally built dockyards irrespective of the political affiliation of their owners.

While the authorities deserve praise for their late yet necessary response, BIWTA should not have allowed these dockyards to be built in the first place. In fact, the BIWTA used to give conditional permission to set up dockyards until the High Court intervened in 2009. Therefore, BIWTA shares the blame for this current situation. We hope that once all these dockyards are destroyed, the BIWTA will be vigilant so that no such dockyards can ever be built by occupying riverbed.