Environment activists, experts on river, water and environment have emphasized the need for saving the water bodies in the interest of environment and country’s existence involving the people.
They said that among all types of water bodies in Bangladesh, rivers and beels maintain a large volume of water. These important sources of water must be saved for the country’s existence. Bangladesh is a riverine country which survives on river and other water bodies, they added.
They laid emphasis on people’s involvement in this regard and said that people’s involvement is a must to protect environment.
The environmentalists and experts expressed their opinion at a press conference at Dhaka Reporters Unit in Dhaka on Monday.
Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan (BAPA) and Bangladesh Environment Network (BEN) jointly arranged the press conference to brief about the BAPA-BEN Special Conference on Environment-2023.
The BAPA-BEN special conference on ‘Bangladesh’s water, river and beel problems and solutions’ will be held at Dhaka University’s Annex Building on January 14.
Alamgir Kabir, member secretary of BAPA read out a written speech at the press conference, while Dr Md Khalequzzaman, global coordinator of Bangladesh Environment Network (BEN), who is also a professor at the Department of Geology & Physics of Lock Haven University (USA), also spoke at the press conference.
BAPA joint secretary Prof Dr Ahmad Kamruzzaman Majumder, who is also chairman of Department of Environmental Science at Stamford University Bangladesh, Mihir Biswas, another joint secretary of BAPA, Khandaker Bazlul Haque, vice-president of BAPA, Prof M Shahidul Islam, executive member of BAPA also attended the press conference, while Sharif Jamil, general secretary of BAPA, spoke through video conference.
Environment activists and experts on environment at the press conference said that if the people are not involved and the people are not aware of, environmental movement and environmental protection are not possible.
Alamgir Kabir informed that the BAPA-BEN conference will have two sessions-- expert session and general session. Experts can participate in expert sessions and people from all levels can participate in general sessions.
Authors and researchers can submit papers and reports on haor, beel and rivers in the conference by December 22. Researchers from outside Bangladesh can write to mkhalequ@lockhaven.edu and researchers from Bangladesh to shahidul.geoenv@du.ac.bd and profakmrulsb@gmail.com.
Universities, educational institutes, research institutes, socio-cultural-environmentalist organisations were invited to play the role of organizers from the press conference.
