The sorry state of rivers is blamed, among others, on an unabated grabbing of river land by entrepreneurs and individuals enjoying political and moneyed clout. Some entrepreneurs setting up brick kilns, as a photograph with a number of kiln chimneys sprouting on the river that New Age published on May 5 shows, on the Dhaleshwari at Sirajdikhan in Munshiganj shows the extent of river land grabbing and the nonchalance of the authorities concerned. Dhaleshwari river land grab have made headlines many times in the past, too. A lawmaker is reported in 2018 to have set up a power plant on the Dhaleshwari. The Inland Water Transport Authority in 2019 identified 256 illegal structures on the river banks, conducted eviction drives and reclaimed some land. Local people then alleged that the authorities only evicted small grabbers, leaving out influential grabbers and large industries. Even the areas reclaimed went back into the hands of grabbers within months. Such incidents appear to characterise all river land reclamation efforts.

It largely appears that eviction drives, often conducted on court orders, have done nothing to sort out the problem. In most eviction drives, influential people manage to somehow save themselves and the land grabbed. The court intervened a number of times and ordered the government to make a list of grabbers. The government made such lists, too, but failed to take a holistic approach to reclaim the grabbed land and save the rivers. The lists of grabbers, as various official estimates say, vary in the ranges of 50,000–65,000 and the grabbers include not only people with political clout but also public agencies. The court asked the government to prepare an action plan detailing the timeframe, logistics and resources required to free rivers of encroachment and demarcate river boundaries for their protection, evict encroachers and restore the rivers to their original state. The court also asked the government to make the National River Conservation Commission an independent and effective institution, but the commission has lived to be a mere ‘recommending body’, without any statutory power of intervention or implementation. All this points to a worrying lack of political will on part of the government.

The authorities concerned must, therefore, take action against those who set up brick kilns on the Dhaleshwari. Most important, the government must take a holistic approach to save all rivers from being encroached. The government must draw up a comprehensive plan to reclaim the rivers, restore them to their original state and establish a mechanism to make the reclamation sustainable. It is high time the government drew up the plan and effectively executed it to end the circle of reclamation and reoccupation.