Staff Reporter:
Speakers at a roundtable discussion yesterday urged the government to start rehabilitation activities un-der the social safety net program in Feni and other flood affected areas.
In the roundtable they presented a 15-point proposal to assist the flood affected people in Feni and other districts.
Feni Journalists Forum, Dhaka (FJFD) arranged the roundtable ‘Recent Flood: Reason and Doings’ at the Jatiya Press Club (JPC).
Dhaka University former VC Prof Dr Anowar Ullah Chowdhury, economist and ICB chairman Prof Abu Ahmed, economist Dr Mostafizur Rahman, Bangladesh Journalists Welfare Trust Managing Direc-tor M Abdullah, JPC general secretary Ayub Bhuiyan, journalist Motahar Hossain Masum, FJFD joint secretary Mahmudul Hasan Raju, treasurer Burhan Faisal and member Salma Afroz took part in the dis-cussion while FJFD president Foyez Ullah Bhuiyan was in the chair.
Science Faculty Dean of Stamford University Professor Dr Ahmed Kamruzzaman Majumder and River and Delta Research Centre chairman Mohammad Ejaj jointly presented the keynote paper while FJFD general secretary Aditya Arafat acted as moderator.
The keynote presenters identified five significant factors for the sudden and unusual floods in Feni and its surrounding districts this year.
They said excessive rainfall in a short period of time, cutting the banks of the Muhuri River at Kalikapur point of Parshuram Upazila, encroachment of river, pollution and decrease in navigability, blocking the flow of water by creating fish enclosures and opening of dams or barrages without any prior notice ag-gravated the flood situation.
The 15-point proposals placed in the meeting include- removal of dams or barrages from all transbound-ary rivers and prohibit construction of new dam, ensuring participation of youths in policy making, rati-fication of the UN International Water Flow Convention-1997 and taking pragmatic steps to prevent climate change.
Besides, they proposed for taking effective measures to prevent river erosion, rebuild the Muchapur clo-sure, restoring navigability of canals and prevent river and environmental pollution.
