Engineering planning indeed!

We are surprised to learn from a Daily Star report that hundreds of bridges, culverts and box culverts on rivers and canals in Jhalakathi zilla were constructed without keeping the required navigation height in mind. As a result, river communication in the district is being greatly disrupted.  The navigable height of the bridges and culverts over most of the canals is so low that no watercraft can pass under them, and to do so, they have to wait for ebb tide.

Transporting goods through river routes was the cheapest and safest in the past as the markets in the district were mostly set up decades ago on river and canal banks. But at present the traders and farmers in the zilla are facing serious problems as they now have to use trucks at a higher fare to transport their goods.

Although the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), Roads and Highways Department (RHD) and the Zilla Parishad now have to get navigation clearance before constructing any structure over canals or rivers, we wonder why in case of the structures built before 2007, the authorities concerned did not need this certificate.

It defies logic how so many structures were built without thinking about the consequences of losing navigability. This just proves the incompetence of the LGED and RHD engineers and their bosses in charge of building these structures. The government must hold all the parties involved including BIWTA accountable, for making such a mess in the name of development and also find out if there was any corruption involved.