For the first time, the national budget has proposed allocation of Tk1.0 billion to facilitate rehabilitation of the people affected by river erosion.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Thursday made the proposal in his budget speech for the fiscal year (FY) 2019-20.
He said human habitations, schools and colleges, government and private installations, business enterprises and marketplaces are being destroyed due to river erosion and people in the affected areas are losing everything.
"To facilitate rehabilitation of the people affected by river erosion, I propose to allocate Tk1.0 billion in the budget," he added.
The government has taken up various plans to increase navigability of rivers, dredge 510 kilometres of rivers by the year 2022 to prevent river erosion and to ensure supply of water during the lean season, he said.
Annually river erosion destroys homesteads of some 50,000 people, who comprise around 30 to 40 percent of the homeless in the country, former Water Resources Minister Anisul Islam Mahmud said in 2016.
