Dhaka: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday urged all concerned to create reservoirs to harvest rainwater during monsoon to utilise it for the development of the country.

‘We’ve to work out a plan for creating ways to harvest the water that we get during monsoon,’ she said.    

Sheikh Hasina said this while addressing a function organised by Water Resources Ministry at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC), marking the World Water Day 2018.

She said the water preservation capacity of the country’s rivers has decreased due to siltation. ‘Riverbeds get inflated due to siltation. This is how they lose their navigability, but we have to protect our rivers.’

The Prime Minister said the rivers could retain their navigability with through the planned dredging which will be beneficial for the country.

‘I always think that through dredging we could increase the navigability of the rivers and we can preserve the excessive water that comes from Himalaya during the rainy season. The more water we can preserve the more it will be beneficial for the country,’ she said.

Talking about seasonal flood, Hasina said flood is also needed for Bangladesh. ‘We’ve to live with flood, but we need to be careful so that this flood doesn’t harm us, we have to utilise the bright side [increasing land fertility] of flood, too,’ she said.

The Prime Minister asked the authorities concerned to take plans keeping that view of flood in mind. ‘We also have to implement those plans so that we can achieve the desired goal of making Bangladesh a poverty—and hunger-free country as dreamt by Bangabandhu,’ she said.

Hasina said there should always be preparations to face the challenges of nature as the people of the country have to live with it.