Bangladesh is seeking $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 Xian Zhu, country director of the World Bank. Xian said 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 $51 million to develop the sector. Water transport offers a cheap, efficient and environmentally friendly means of moving passengers and cargo.