World Rivers Day observed

City Desk  :
The World Rivers Day observed on Sunday. The day observed in the country as elsewhere across the globe on Sunday.

The day is annually celebrated on the last Sunday of every September with an aim of creating a greater awareness of the need to better care for our water resources.

The theme of this year’s World Rivers Day is “The waterways in our public life.”

Although Bangladesh is known as a nodimatrik desh- a country borne by rivers, many of its rivers are now lost, mostly due to human interventions.

It is learnt that the number of rivers in the country has almost halved in the last 50 years.

Currently, many of a total of 383 rivers listed in the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) are in a sorry state because of pollution, aggression of land robbers and unplanned industrialization.

The natural flow of the rivers is being obstructed and many rivers have dried up.

The first World Rivers Day was observed in 2005, following the launch that year of the Water for Life Decade by the United Nations.

The proposal for such a celebration was initiated by renowned Canadian river advocate Mark Angelo.