Challenges of new government in the water resources sector

The new government came to power after winning the 13th National Parliament election, where the BNP secured a two-thirds majority. In its election manifesto, the BNP promised to re-excavate 20,000 kilometers of rivers and canals. I discussed this in detail in my recent article titled "River Management Issues in the Electoral Manifestos: Good Intentions with Gaping Implementations" (Samakal, 11 February 2026).

Notably, right after taking oath on February 17, the new cabinet held its first meeting on February 19 and decided to move forward with this promise. According to Daily Samakal report (February 20, 2026), the Prime Minister chaired an inter-ministerial meeting to plan the strategy and guidelines for two key pledges: planting 250 million trees in five years and the nationwide river, canal, and reservoir excavation programme. Ministers from 12 ministries, including local government, finance, environment, land, agriculture, and water resources, attended the meeting.

The BNP's strong focus on water resources management before the election, and this quick decision in the first cabinet meeting after victory, is really highly praiseworthy. We will have to wait and see the honey-moon period of the government about how much real effort and progress the new Water Resources Minister, Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Anie, can show in this vital sector for our riverine country. But right now, he faces the challenge of being compared to what the Water Resources Adviser of the previous interim government achieved in the last one and a half years.

For the past four decades, this ministry has rarely been a top priority for any government. It is observed just looking at the list of past ministers and state ministers up to 2024. In that circumstances, appointing Syeda Rizwana Hasan—who has led the environmental movement in Bangladesh for nearly 30 years—to handle both the Environment Ministry and Water Resources Ministry created a lot of hope among environmental activists.

In the last one and a half years, I alone wrote many articles in Daily Samakal about the direction and priorities of this sector—perhaps a record number. Examples include pieces on what the new government should do to protect rivers, floods in cut-off rivers, Teesta issues, Hilsa export debates, transboundary river challenges, the UN Water Convention, Feni floods, interim government performance on river protection, specific river sorrows like Dudhkumar, Teesta master plan possibilities, Ganga Treaty renewal, and Ganga Barrage geography and geopolitics.

The big question is: How well did the interim government meet the expectations—not just mine or those of fellow river activists, but of other environmentalists across the country—in the water resources sector? On the first anniversary of that government, I listed 20 indicators in my article "How many marks can the interim government get in river protection" to measure success. These covered things like 1. reforming the National River Conservation Commission, 2. building a river database, 3. reviewing projects to save costs, 4. zero tolerance for encroachment and pollution, 5. stopping illegal sand mining, 6. protecting fish resources, 7. controlling river erosion, 8. rescuing canals, 9. reducing plastic pollution, 10. controling pesticide, 11. renewing the Ganga Treaty, 12. managing Teesta water, 13. addressing mega dams on the Brahmaputra, 14. signing international safeguards, 15. dealing with India's river-linking project, 16. updating the Bangladesh-India naval protocol, 17. reforming the Joint River Commission, 18. improving flood forecasting, 19. shifting to basin-based agreements, and 20. creating multilateral commissions instead of just bilateral ones. 

The full details are in that article, but the main point is that the challenges remain unchanged. Even now, on the new government's anniversary, the same indicators can measure its success or failure.

In a country like Bangladesh, it's hard to meet everyone's expectations while doing public duty. Trying to clear decades of built-up expectations in just one and a half years is almost impossible especially in a complex sector like water resources that involves geography, politics, money, and time. On top of that, there are pressures from lobbies, syndicates, and even powerful flatters—they swarm when you're in power and attack when you're out.

Even with some disagreements, the interim government's Water Resources Ministry made several important policy and structural reforms. These include the Haor and Wetland Conservation Ordinance 2026, the Dredging and Dredged Material Management Policy 2024, finalising the industrial water use policy, joining the UN Water Convention, restructuring the Bangladesh-India Joint Rivers Commission, agreements with the US Meteorological Department, and forming a joint working group with China's Water Resources Commission.

They also took important practical steps. These include preparing a list of rivers and canals, starting to enforce the Water Act which had been ignored for over a decade, launching efforts to reclaim and clean the four rivers around Dhaka plus at least one river in each division and district, and running special programmes to protect beels and canals.

Now the new Minister of Water Resources is already under pressure to deliver on the Teesta Water Sharing Agreement and Teesta Master Plan. This year, the renewal of the Ganges Water Sharing Agreement will add more pressure. Besides being compared to the previous adviser, the minister must handle these high expectations.

Beyond the usual demands from service seekers, civil society, and the huge promise of re-excavating 20,000 kilometers of rivers and canals in five years, the new government's own challenge for this ministry is to continue the programmes started by the interim government over the past one and a half years. At least, the government should to maintain the policies and structural reforms the interim government put in place.

Brigadier General (Retd.) M Sakhawat Hossain, who was an adviser in the recent interim government, served as Election Commissioner during the 'One Eleven' government. After retiring in 2012, in an exclusive interview, he told me it would be enough if the next commissions could simply follow the policy framework made by the ATM Shamsul Huda Commission. Sadly, the following three commissions failed to do so, and that hurt the country's electoral system badly for long term.

The same cautionary approach applies to the new Water Resources Minister. There should be no going backward on the policies and programmes of the last one and a half years. Rather, there is a great opportunity to move forward in managing the country's most important natural resources.

Writer: Sheikh Rokon is writer and river researcher  

skrokon@gmail.com

The article was originally published in the print and online editions of The Daily Samakal and has been rewritten for the English version by Mohammed Humayun Kabir, Senior Sub-Editor.