Increasing river erosion due to sand mining

The government spends a lot of money each year to prevent river erosion, but due to the unplanned sand mining the country's rivers are being eroded extensively, speakers said at webinar.

Sand mining now becomes a threat for the river, biodiversity and environment as well as for the lives of the people, they warned. 

Speakers made the remarks at a webinar titled, 'Speaking up about sand miners and contractors: challenges of women, youth and grassroots activists', jointly organised by Change Initiative and Oxfam Bangladesh on Thursday. 

Further, sand mining has imposed a bad impact on agriculture and forest, said Divisional Coordinator of Bela Shah Shaheda Akter, while presenting the keynote paper. 

For this reason, we may fail to achieve sustainable development goals, she warned. 

Addressing as the chief guest, Dr Kamal Uddin Ahmed, permanent member of National Human Rights Commission, said we cannot overlook our need for sand in construction work, which rises each day.

But a vested quarter takes the opportunity of the necessity, mining sand in almost every river in the country in an unplanned way, needless to say breaking law and regulation, he added.

He said citing law, "No mining can be conducted if there is any bridge or important structure within one kilometer, which is being violated in most of the cases."

"However, the government conducts mobile courts sometimes but that is not worked properly. 

"The reason, sand miners are backed by the influential. That's why they remain out of the reach of the law enforcers. 

This rights activist then suggested that a strict movement and a crackdown needed to wipe out the unplanned sand mines.