Inland Waterways Of Bangladesh

By DR. AB THAPA

Rivers in eastern part of the Indian Sub-continent have been an integral part of the human existence. They were used for navigation by country crafts from the time immemorial. Towns grew on the bank of rivers. Even in the Mogul period major towns and settlements were on the bank of rivers mainly for easy mode of communications with the rest of the country. Dhaka, the capital of Mogul Bengal and similarly, Delhi the capital of Mogul Empire and other important cities were all situated besides navigable waterways. British also set up their capital in Calcutta besides the river Hooghly . During the era of the British rule, greater part of the river traffic as in the old days continued to be carried on indigenous boats made by the local river men. It was estimated in the eighteenth century that some thirty thousand boatmen found employment on Bengal 's fleet of country crafts.

S team engine driven paddle steamer was first introduced in the river Ganges in the year 1834. Since then paddle steamers with passengers and tugboats with dumb barges started plying from Allahabad in central India to Calcutta and from Calcutta to Eastern Province of Assam through East Bengal now Bangladesh . In those days river conservation works were carried out at district level by a Pilot Superintendent, who used indigenous method of sounding channels with lead line and bamboo sticks. Maintenance works were done in dry season by bandalling, which is a method still adopted in some rivers in Bangladesh . Dredging on a limited scale was also introduced for the maintenance of river. Some development works were also carried out in way of loop cutting, excavation of link canal in order to shorten the route.

Rivers in Bangladesh

The total area of Bangladesh is about 1,42,450 sq. km. Most of the land excepting the hilly regions in the eastern side bordering with Burma and India, has been formed by the sediments carried down over a long period by the big river systems of the sub-continent. These rivers, the Ganges , Brahmaputra , Jamuna, Meghna ( along with their tributaries), bring with them 1,400 billion cubic meter of water annually. In addition, about 2.5 billion tons of silt is washed down every year from a vast region, which measures more than 1.6 million sq. km in area.

The rivers of Bangladesh are quite different from one another in nature. They are plagued by various types of problems such as the change in courses, river instability, massive siltation etc. While dominated by three major rivers e.g. Padma, Meghna and Jamuna, the country’s river system is characterized by innumerable large and small channels that branch off from the major channels. This river system is dominated by the big rivers and any changes in them affect the whole system. These big rivers are classified as ‘unstable’ (Meghna) and ‘very unstable’ (Padma &Jamuna.). Both Padma and Jamuna show a high degree of lateral migrations. For example, the Padma discharged most of its flow before the sixteenth century through the Hooghly River on the bank of which Calcutta is located. Since then, the main channel has progressively moved north eastwards, occupying and abandoning several courses before assuming its present position. Jamuna appears even more unstable which has changed its course significantly within the past 200 years abandoning large towns and inland ports to what are today unnavigable distributaries.

Regime of the Rivers

The regime of the rivers in Bangladesh with the exception of those close to the sea is characterized by a high and low water period. The low water period lasts from December to May. The lowest water levels are recorded in the months of March and April. During the low water period, shipping is hampered on many waterways, while some routes are closed.

Most of the rivers have meandering riverbeds of fine sandy material. They show an irregular pattern of deep bends and sallow crossings. These rivers can be subdivided in four typical types.

The large braided rivers (main rivers) - In the high water period (in rainy season), they flow in wide river beds( with velocities of 4 m/s) also overflowing the banks, and flooding large areas. In dry season, the flow branches, bifurcating and

meandering irregularly.

The tributaries (e.g. Surma, Barak, Atrai).- These collectors carry the discharge from local catchment areas to the main rivers. Their regime depends on local rainfall and evaporation, while their morphology is governed by the discharge and the erosion in the catchment area.

The tidal rivers and branches ( e.g. Pusur, Karnaphuli etc ) - These rivers carry the discharge from their catchment area but their regime and morphology are mainly determined by the daily tidal flow.

The distributaries or connecting branch rivers- Dhalesawani, Lakhya, Old Brahmaputra are fed by other rivers , and their regime and morphology depend on those larger rivers. Changes at the bifurcation and confluences with those rivers in particular have major impact on their morphology

Inland Water Transport Operation

In the early years since 1947 eight principal operators were engaged in IWT operation. Out of them the two former British companies with their registered office in London were the major carrier ( 77%) of cargo and passengers. They owned abut 450 vessels. River conservancy works and maintenance works were carried out by those British companies as in pre partition years. From the early 50s more and more private sector operators started to take part in inland water transport both in passenger and cargo carriage. As a result, the Government felt the necessity of a central semiautonomous regulatory and development body for the operation and maintenance of inland waterways. Thus, in 1958, East Pakistan Inland Water Transport Authority (EPIWTA) was established under the Ministry of Road and Water Transport of the Government of East Pakistan. EPIWTA changed the old traditional method of river conservancy by improved organization and modernized the system of markings by introducing lighted buoys and shore beacons, survey by mechanized vessels equipped with echo sounders and later by DECCA system of position finding. Maps and charts replaced the memories of the former pilots and tidal gauzes were installed to measure the flow of the river.

Dredging was extensively used for maintenance of navigable channels in dry season and also for opening up new routes for mechanized vessel. On an average 400,000 cubic meters were dredged annually.

In early 60s the first coaster with 800 ton load and about 12 feet draft was successfully piloted from maritime port of Chittagong to Dhaka a major inland port and enroute crossing 11 miles of Bay of Bengal . This opened a new chapter in IWT operation enabling self propelled coasters to ply between maritime ports and inland ports through bay crossing round the year rather than dumb barges towed by tug in winter season when bay was flat calm. This route soon became one of the major trunk routes with hundreds of coasters and tankers plying and carrying about 30% of the import from the maritime port of Chittagong to hinterland major inland ports of Dhaka and Narayanganj.

After independence of Bangladesh EPIWTA was renamed as Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA). Now great challenges both in operation and maintenance of river routes are facing the BIWTA - with more traffic from operational aspect and vigorous maintenance work for diminished flow of water in the rivers during the dry season.

Classification of Waterways

The responsibility for maintaining the network of navigable waterways is vested in Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA). The total length of waterways in the dry season is 5,222 km which extends to 8,433 km in wet season. BIWTA maintains about 4,200 km and has provided 3,900 kilometers with various navigational aids for day time navigation or both day and night navigation throughout the year depending upon the importance of the route. The present method of classification of waterways is principally based on the economic values of the waterways. Thus the class of waterway depends on the traffic generating potential of the places it connects. For conservation and maintenance purpose inland waterways are divided into 3 classes.

(1) Class I routes are the main arteries of traffic flow and are the major concern of BIWTA as regards conservancy and maintenance. The users shall have a guarantee of the specified navigability of minimum depth of 3.6 meters throughout the year. For day and night navigation channels are marked by lighted/unlighted buoys, and lighted shore beacons. Pilotage service is also provided by BIWTA for safe navigation. Maintenance of routes are carried out on regular basis during dry season by dredging and bandalling. With a total length of some 600 km the network of arterial routes link up the maritime ports of Chittagong and Mongla and the major inland river ports. These routes carry 83% of all mechanized inland water transport tonnage.

(2) Class II routes are important traffic links and also called Secondary Routes maintained at a minimum depth of 1.8 meters and usually 2.4 to 2.7 meters in flood season. The total length is about 1,440 km.

 

(3) Class III routes are traffic links of regional importance. With a total length of abut 1,900 km BIWTA attempts to maintain them at 0.9 to 1.8 meters depending upon the regional importance.

IWT Traffic

The mechanized fleet carry broadly two types of cargo, one is the export/import cargo arising out of the foreign trade of the country and the other is the domestic cargo moving long distances between districts and regions of the country along the rivers. The estimated annual cargo and passenger traffic in 1978-79 was 3.77 million tons and 44.44 passengers respectively. In 1985-86 it increased to 5.9 million tons and 68.13 passengers respectively.

Type of Vessels

The IWT vessels in Bangladesh exhibit a considerable degree of commodity and route specification. Certain vessels operate mainly, if not only, in particular routes engaged in carrying specific commodity traffic. The extent of commodity and route specification of the major type of vessels could be described as hereinafter. (1) Coasters- Chittagong Dhaka route for transportation of foodgrains, cement, POL, fertilizer, jute goods, iron, steel& general cargo etc. (2) Tankers - Chittagong Khulna and Chittagong Baghabari routes for export and import. (3) Bay Crossing Barges- Mongla/Khulna & Dhaka Narayanganj (4) Inland Barges- for transportation of sand, stone, rice, paddy, fertilizer, raw jute, salt, general domestic goods.

Kosi Canal Waterway and Bangladesh

Nepal is aiming to develop Kosi Canal Waterway linking Nepal with seaports. The proposed canal waterway can be expected to be on a par with the Class I waterway of the Bangladesh and Faracca Canal Waterway of India. Nepal and India have already signed an agreement to conduct detailed feasibility study of the Kosi Canal Waterway. It need not be explained that the Kosi Canal Waterway would be linking Nepal with waterways of Bangladesh also.

(Dr. Thapa writes on water resources)