Bangladesh has more than 230 rivers. These rivers have flowed over this country. The agriculture, energy sector, waterway communication, economy, trade etc are greatly dependent on the rivers.
The Padma, The Meghan, the Jamuna and the karnafuli are the main rivers. Besides these, there are many small rivers in the country. The Buri ganga, the shitalaksha, the gomuti, the main rivers. Besides these, there are many small rivers in our country. The Buri ganga, the shitalaksha, the gomuti, the tista, the aria, the korotoua, the mahaNanda etc are the small rivers. Rivers plays an important role in our agriculture. The rivers supply water and make the land fertile by depositing silt. Silt helps to grow plenty of crops.
Rivers are the most important geographical features in Bangladesh, and it is the rivers that created the vast alluvial delta. It's been known that the out flow of water from Bangladesh is the third highest in the world, after the Amazon and the Congo systems. The Padma, Jamuna and the lower Meghna are the widest rivers, with the latter expanding to around eight kilometers across in the wet season, and even more during the floods.
Some rivers are known by different names in various portions of their course. The Ganges (Ganga), for example, is known as the Padma below the point where it is joined by the Jamuna River, the name given to the lowermost portion of the main channel of the Brahmaputra. The combined stream is then called the Meghna below its confluence with a much smaller tributary of the same name. In the dry season the numerous deltaic dis-tributaries that lace the terrain may be several kilometers wide as they near the Bay of Bengal, whereas at the height of the summer monsoon season they coalesce into an extremely broad expanse of silt-laden water. In much of the delta, therefore, homes must be constructed on earthen platforms or embankments high enough to remain above the level of all but the highest floods. In non-monsoon months the exposed ground is pocked with water-filled borrow pits, or tanks, from which the mud for the embankments was excavated. Throughout the country there are bils, haors and lakes that meet the need of drinking, bathing and irrigating water.
About two thirds of the cultivable land at Bangladesh are prone to flood damage every years. Thus flood control and drainage improvement are crucial for the national economy in order to reduce or prevent damage to crops and infrastructure. Since agriculture and water resources arc linked, increasing food grain production requires water management through flood control, drainage and irrigation.
The dual problem of shortage of water during the dry season and its abundance in rainy season are critical in the development and management of water resources in Bangladesh. Being the lower riparian of the three major rivers of the world-the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Meghna-Bangladesh could not undertake meaningful water development in the past in order to properly harness their flows for the benefit of the people.
The historic Ganges Water sharing Treaty signed with India on 12 December, 1996, has opened up newer avenues for offsetting the negative impact of Farakka Barrage and tapping the potentials of water resources in the country. Opportunities have also opened up for regional. sub-regional and basin-wide development and management of water for mutual benefit. It is in this backdrop that the Ganges Barrage has been taken up by the present government for implementation.
