- Bangladesh’s High Court has granted the country’s rivers the rights and status of living entities.This will protect the rivers from pollution and encroachment.
- The court has appointed the country’s River Conservation Commission as the legal guardian of all waterways and directed other state agencies to fully assist it.
- The Court has empowered the commission to take strict action against encroachers,polluters and illegal dredging companies.
- This decision will save rivers from illegal encroachment in the densely populated country of 165 million people.Many of the Bangladesh rivers are struggling due to illegal sand dredging and large-scale industrial pollution.
- Most of Bangladesh’s rivers are branches and tributaries of two main Himalayan rivers namely the Ganges and the Brahmaputra which flow through Bangladesh before reaching the Bay of Bengal.
