Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Taskeen Ahmed on Wednesday called for a long-term, performance-based public-private partnership (PPP) framework to revive Bangladesh’s rivers and canals after decades of decline.
He warned that continued neglect of the country’s waterways is costing the economy billions of dollars each year through congestion and transport inefficiencies.
He made the call while presenting a paper titled Revitalising Circular Waterways and Inland Trade at a seminar at the DCCI Auditorium in the capital’s Motijheel.
Bangladesh has more than 1,415 rivers and a historical canal network spanning around 24,000 kilometres, which have long served as a backbone of the economy, Taskeen said.
However, more than 55 per cent of the canals are now silted or encroached, while navigable waterways shrink from around 6,000 kilometres during the monsoon to 3,865 kilometres in the dry season.
Despite waterways providing a cheaper and cleaner transport alternative, about 77 per cent of freight remains dependent on roads, he added.
Citing government data, the DCCI president said the Ministry of Water Resources had been allocated Tk10,533 crore, while 42.77 per cent of the canal excavation and irrigation targets for FY26 had so far been achieved.
“A 180-day national programme targeting 1,204 kilometres of excavation is expected to be completed by June, alongside an additional 1,500 kilometres under relief-based re-excavation schemes,” he said.
Taskeen also referred to a broader five-year plan included in the BNP’s election manifesto for the 13th national parliamentary election.
The plan envisages restoring 20,000 kilometres of rivers and canals and reviving 520 disappeared rivers, with the initial phase already covering 54 districts.
Highlighting the Sahapara pilot project as a model, he said the initiative had brought 1,200 hectares of land under irrigation, raised crop production by 60,000 tonnes and benefited around 3,50,000 people.
By storing monsoon rainwater for dry-season irrigation, the project had also reduced farmers’ dependence on electricity-intensive deep tube wells, he added.
Taskeen said transporting cargo between Dhaka and Chattogram by inland waterways costs 55 to 60 per cent less than road transport and is four to eight times more energy-efficient per tonne-kilometre.
Even so, waterways carry only about 7 per cent of the country’s freight when measured by weight and distance.
He described the 112-kilometre Dhaka Circular Waterway as a stalled economic opportunity, citing encroachment of the Tongi Canal, the failure of feeder services for previous waterbus routes and funding priorities tilted towards mega-projects.
Shifting only 20 per cent of truck freight to the circular waterway corridor could help reduce Dhaka’s estimated annual congestion losses of $3 billion to $7 billion, he said.
The Hatirjheel water taxi service, launched in 2016, had already demonstrated the potential of restoring urban waterways, he added.
The DCCI president identified rapid re-siltation, land encroachment, insufficient long-term financing and fragmented governance among agencies including the Bangladesh Water Development Board, Local Government Engineering Department and Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority as major barriers.
Environmental safeguards and growing climate variability also pose challenges to sustainable waterway restoration, he said.
Taskeen proposed a nine-point roadmap that includes replacing short-term dredging contracts with performance-based PPP agreements lasting five to 10 years.
Other recommendations include introducing unified water and trade legislation aligned with the National Logistics Policy 2025, establishing GIS-based digital monitoring to prevent encroachment and developing agro-logistics hubs at canal junctions.
He also called for formally recognising trade bodies as co-governance partners in waterway policymaking.
