Bangladesh seeks US$300 million in loans from the World Bank for waterways
Bangladesh is seeking US$300 million in loans from the World Bank to develop its inland waterways, a senior official said on Tuesday.
'Rivers are the gift of nature, but we fail to reap benefits from them for they are often polluted and silted,' said Sunil Kanti Bose, chairman of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority.
'We cannot address the problems because of a lack of funds,' he said, adding that the rivers should be dredged to augment their flows while the river ports were also to be developed.
He was speaking at a workshop on the development of Bangladesh's waterways, which was attended by Zhu Xian, country director of the World Bank.
Mr Zhu said that his bank was 'committed to support Bangladesh government's efforts to implement all strategies in this (waterways) sector'.
Officials said the World Bank had so far offered US$51 million to develop the sector. Water transport offers a cheap, efficient and environmentally friendly means of moving passengers and cargo.
Mr Zhu said: 'It also has the potential to reach poor rural communities, giving them access to services and markets, thereby significantly helping efforts to reduce poverty.' ' . . . despite its (water transport) poor reputation for accidents, statistically it is considerably safer than roads,' the World Bank official said.
On waterways, 56 per cent of accidents are caused by overloading, a shipping document showed.
Other causes include collision, human error and storms, the document added.
'There is a growing awareness that roads are not the only solution to Bangladesh's transportation needs and so the World Bank is delighted to support this important sector,' Mr Zhu said.
'Rivers are the gift of nature, but we fail to reap benefits from them for they are often polluted and silted,' said Sunil Kanti Bose, chairman of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority.
'We cannot address the problems because of a lack of funds,' he said, adding that the rivers should be dredged to augment their flows while the river ports were also to be developed.
He was speaking at a workshop on the development of Bangladesh's waterways, which was attended by Zhu Xian, country director of the World Bank.
Mr Zhu said that his bank was 'committed to support Bangladesh government's efforts to implement all strategies in this (waterways) sector'.
Officials said the World Bank had so far offered US$51 million to develop the sector. Water transport offers a cheap, efficient and environmentally friendly means of moving passengers and cargo.
Mr Zhu said: 'It also has the potential to reach poor rural communities, giving them access to services and markets, thereby significantly helping efforts to reduce poverty.' ' . . . despite its (water transport) poor reputation for accidents, statistically it is considerably safer than roads,' the World Bank official said.
On waterways, 56 per cent of accidents are caused by overloading, a shipping document showed.
Other causes include collision, human error and storms, the document added.
'There is a growing awareness that roads are not the only solution to Bangladesh's transportation needs and so the World Bank is delighted to support this important sector,' Mr Zhu said.
