Bangladesh to dredge rivers as climate change causes salinity intrusion

People’s Daily Online via Xinhua: The Bangladeshi government, as part of its all-out efforts to check climate change-induced salinity intrusion, will go for capital dredging in the country's major rivers shortly, a minister said Tuesday.

Speaking at a seminar here on Tuesday, Bangladeshi Water Resources Minister Ramesh Chandra Sen said, "The government will go for capital dredging soon to ensure more navigability of the major rivers to check salinity intrusion."

The minister's remark came after experts in the seminar, organized by the Institute of Water Modelling (IWM), a trust established by the Bangladeshi government, said that salinity level in the water is apprehended to become 5 to 7 parts per thousand (ppt) by 2050, posing threats to food production. They said a 60-centimeter rise in the sea level is apprehended in Bangladesh coastal zone by the same year that will submerge 18 percent of the nation's landmass.

IWM Executive Director Emaduddin Ahmed said salinity will intrude more landward specially during dry season due to sea level rise. Against this backdrop, Ahmed said augmented flow of fresh water in the major rivers in Bangladesh, the world's largest delta country, is vital for preventing salinity level to shield the country's agro-farming sector against climate change shocks…

Kash flowers on the banks of the River Padma in Bangladesh, shot by Auyon, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License