Speakers at an event on Sunday called for a strong political commitment to save the country's rivers.
They urged the authorities concerned to protect the rivers from unabated pollution and mindless grabbing.
The stakeholders and experts also underscored the need for proper enforcement of existing laws, enactment of required laws, strict monitoring and empowerment of the conservation commission to save the water bodies.
Creating well-planned and suitable inland waterways by improving the river navigation can also bring more economic prospects, they added.
They made the comments at a discussion on World Rivers Day 2022, organised by the National River Conservation Commission (NRCC) at CIRDAP auditorium in Dhaka.
State Minister for Shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury was present at the meeting as the chief guest, with the NRCC Chairman Dr Manjur A Chowdhury in the chair.
UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh Gwyn Lewis attended the event as a special guest, while Dr Ainun Nishat, Emeritus Professor of BRAC University, was present as the chief speaker.
Speaking at the event, Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury said there are river protection committees at upazila and district levels who could not extend their work much due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The list of land grabbers has already been prepared to bring them under law, the minister said.
In reply to a journalist's question over continuous river pollution and grabbing, Mr Chowdhury said there is no such incident that the recovered portion of rivers, which were earlier rescued by different drives, has been occupied again so far.
The strong monitoring is going on to ensure the river rights, he added.
NRCC Chairman Manjur A Chowdhury said, "People of Dhaka city produce 5.0 million kg of faeces and 1.5 billion litres of urine every day. It was Dhaka WASA's responsibility to treat them, but they end up in the rivers through the drainage channels of the city corporations."
On the other hand, citing the example of canal inspection in the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) areas, the NRCC chairman said the DNCC was repeatedly asked to set a net at the mouth of each canal so that the garbage of canals does not fall into rivers directly.
The DNCC has not done it yet, he said.
A group of unscrupulous industrialists and some influential quarters are involved in polluting and grabbing rivers across the country, Manjur added.
UN Resident Coordinator Gwyn Lewis said Dhaka is pumping 1.5 million cubic metres of sewage into rivers every day which is alarming.
She also stressed the need for strong political commitment to ensure the river rights and protect them from all kinds of pollution.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Ainun Nishat said, "We need to understand our rivers, their response, behaviour and how they react."
