According to a list published yesterday (April 14) on the Bangladesh Water Development Board’s website, there are now 1,415 rivers across the country.

This is not the first time the government has tried to officially list the rivers in the country. However, this time, river activists are calling it different — mostly because local opinions were taken into account. Still, there are complaints that several rivers were left out of the list.

Mahbub Siddique, a river activist who was involved in compiling the list for the Khulna division, told Bonik Barta, “Not all rivers in the Sundarbans made it to the government’s list. The same happened in the Barind region, where many rivers were left out. If this list remains an ongoing effort, I welcome it. But if it’s seen as a final count, it will end up just as questionable as the past ones.”

Speaking to Bonik Barta about the overall process, Water Resource Adviser Syeda Rizwana Hasan said, “We’ve only listed rivers that are already documented in government records. But this isn’t the final list — it’s part of a continuing process. If more rivers are identified in the future, they’ll be added too.”