River Management Issues in the Electoral Manifestos: Good Intentions with Gaping Implementations

Among the major political parties participating in the 13th National Parliament elections, Jamaat-e-Islami and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) released their election manifestos on Wednesday and Friday respectively. Needless to say, Awami League, one of the country's other major political party, is out of the electoral field this time due to the ban on its activities by the executive order.

Although the media and social media have discussed that the Jamaat-e-Islami is relatively 'prepared' in the election field, at least in terms of the manifestos, the BNP is seen to be ahead. The rest is obvious; in terms of environment and water resource management, BNP's election manifesto has surpassed not only the previous manifestos of itself but also that of the other political parties. The party has probably benefited from involving a young team in formulating the manifesto who understands the environment better. Our friend and university teacher Dr M. A. Baten rightly wrote on Facebook in this regard: “I am an environmentalist. As such, I can say with conviction that no political party has given such detailed and updated plans on the environment in their manifestos since independence.”

Of course, the commitment and activity on the environmental issues have been increasingly being reflected in the election manifestos not only in Bangladesh; as the impact of climate change becomes clearer, political parties around the world also have to pay more attention to the environment due to socio-economic reasons.

I remember that in 2018, when all political parties participated in the 11th National Parliament elections, I analysed the promises on rivers and water resources in their election manifestos. It was also clear there how the political parties of Bangladesh have gradually turned the environmental cause into an election issue. Many people must remember that in the 'Vision 2030' that BNP published in 2017, it had a separate section titled 'Water Resources, Blue Economy and Environmental Conservation'. It must also be said in the interest of truth that the Awami League govt, which was ousted from power in the July mass uprising, also adopted several groundbreaking policies and programmes on the environmental and water resources issues, including the addition of Article 18/A to the constitution. The quality and method of implementation of these policies or programmes are a different discussion.

In any case, if we analyse and compare the promises made by BNP and Jamaat on river management in this year's election manifesto, it is seen that BNP's statement is both specific and comprehensive. On the other hand, Jamaat's statement is superficial and partial. Where BNP is detailed, Jamaat is only a rough sketch. Where Jamaat has expressed aspirations, BNP has explained the process of implementing the aspirations.

For example, the Jamaat-e-Islami manifesto states, “All necessary diplomatic, legal and regional cooperation-based initiatives will be taken to achieve Bangladesh’s fair share of water in the transboundary rivers.” On the other hand, the BNP manifesto mentions at least three specific steps in this regard.

Firstly, it says, “Measures will be taken to strengthen the Joint River Commission and get a fair share of water from rivers flowing across the border. Nepal, Bhutan and China will also be made partners in this regard. In addition, all water agreements will be reviewed anew so that no country gets unilateral benefits.”

Secondly, it says, “Water security, floods and desertification prevention will be ensured in the northern and southern regions through the implementation of the Teesta Master Plan and the Padma Barrage. This initiative will provide irrigation facilities to 7.5 million hectares of land and protect more than 50 million people from floods.”

Thirdly, it said, “By signing the UN Water Convention-1997 (Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses), Bangladesh’s water problem will be highlighted in the international arena.”

Again, just because the BNP manifesto outlines a specific and detailed method for implementing commitments on rivers and water resources, it does not mean that it is ‘correct’. For example, although the party’s manifesto mentions ‘signing’ the UN Watercourse Charter, in reality Bangladesh signed it in 1997. All that remained was to ratify it in the parliament or cabinet. In fact, for the last two decades, we have been saying repeatedly that Bangladesh should sign and ratify transboundary river safeguards. For example, a few years ago, I wrote ‘Negligence of Leaving the International Safeguard Behind’ (Daily Samakal, October 13, 2021).

In fact, during the third term of the BNP (2001-2006), the then Water Resources Minister Major (Retd.) Hafiz Uddin Ahmed Bir Bikram organised a consultative meeting with experts on the ratification of the UN Waterways Charter. So far as I know, out of the 17 participants in the meeting, 16 were of the opinion that the document should be ratified immediately. But that process did not progress. For details, one may read my article titled ‘UN Water Charter: Policy Decisions and Practical Questions’ (Daily Samakal, May 4, 2025).

For example, there is no question about the necessity of implementing the ‘Padma Barrage’ mentioned in the BNP manifesto. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote in an article, “I don’t know what the benefit of forcibly changing the name of the ‘Ganga’ river to ‘Padma’ in the documents of the re-evaluated project regarding the proposed barrage is. But by changing the name of the river Ganga from the India-Bangladesh border, our basin-based rights to the river flowing in the vast area upstream are being eroded.” Read more about ‘The Geography and Geopolitics of the Ganga Barrage’ (Daily Samakal, January 25, 2026).

For example, the BNP manifesto states, “High roads, shelters, culverts and modern warning systems will be established in forested areas.” This is a good intention in the broad sense. But the fact is that one of the main reasons why floods, a blessing of nature, become a curse due to man-made reasons is ‘high roads’. Floodwaters become destructive when they get blocked on these roads. Floods that bring fertility, on the other hand, lose their fertility. Without going into details about the damage that has been done to the river and navigation system by installing ‘culverts’ in various areas and watercourses of the country in the last five decades, it can be said in one word: we don’t want more culverts!

However, the way the Jamaat manifesto talks about implementing the ‘Dutch Delta Model’ to deal with flood risks is even more dangerous. In fact, importing the water resources management engineering from the rocky Dutch Delta into the alluvial Bengal Delta has been backfiring for six decades! 

However, in our country, traditional knowledge, engineering and technology have been used in river and water resource management for thousands of years before the western engineering was introduced. Back then, the health of rivers and wetlands was far better than it is now.

It is possible to discuss river and water resource management in more detail in the election manifestos of the BNP and Jamaat. But it can be said in one word: although the intentions of the two parties regarding this important sector are good, the errors in the implementation method and process are clear. 

I hope that whoever comes to power after the election will definitely have to take a second thought on these matters. In this country of resource constraints, there is no alternative to the proper and economical use of state money by avoiding projects and engineering syndicates in the water resource management sector.

Sheikh Rokon is a writer and river researcher.

skrokon@gmail.com

This article was originally published in Bangla in print edition of Daily Samakal; translated by Mohammed Humayun Kabir, Sr. Sub-Editor for English edition.