The New Nation - Internet Edition

A.T.M.Nurun Nabi

Bangladesh is a fish deficit country according to the statistics of Fish Directorate 2007. The country produced 24.41 lakh metric tonnes of fish during the fiscal 2006-07 and 23.29 metric tonnes of fish during the previous fiscal against the annual demand of 25 lakh metric tonnes. The annual demand of fish per person is 18 kilos.

Experts have pointed out several causes of less production of fish than estimation. Firstly a large number of rivers, river-lets, tributaries, canals, marshes and ponds have dried due to the constructions of barrages on about 54 rivers beyond the borders and due to the constructions of unplanned embankments along the riverbanks, and constructions of roads and highways obstructing the river waters' flow from one end to other.

Secondly, maximum use of the inorganic fertilisers in the cultivatable lands create adverse environment for the fish to grow. During the rainy seasons and when it rains, these fertilisers mix with river waters and from thereto ponds, canals, marshes, lakes etc. Thirdly, the waste and garbage of the mills and factories pour into the rivers and poison the water. The river of Buriganga is the glaring example how a river is made dead.

And fourthly, the indiscriminate netting of the fri fish by the greedy fishermen has hindered normal growth over years. A fish expert said, there are solutions in the problems. It implies upon the government to remove the hindrances gradually in order to increase fish production. By this time, some sort of improvement has been observed.

According to Fish Directorate, the water area of Bangladesh is 54.8 lakh hectares excluding 1,66,000 hectares of seawater. Of it, the closed water has the area of 5.28 lakh hectares (pond & ditch 3.05, baor 0.05 and coastal shrimp hatchery 2.18) and the open water 40.47 lakh hectares (rivers and mouth 10.31, marshes 1.14, flooded lands 28.33 and Kaptai Lake 0.69) and other water 8.73 lakh hectares.

The government allocated taka 551 crore (Non-development Tk. 332, development Tk. 219 crore) during the fiscal 2007-08.