The Institute of Water and Flood Management at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) regularly conducts research on the water management and flood situation of the country.
“The waterlogging situation in the Sundarban region will worsen in the future due to water scarcity, salinity and silt. Therefore, the supply of fresh water will have to be increased. There is no alternative to this barrage,” the institute’s professor Mashfikus Salehin told Prothom Alo.
A similar project was discussed in 2002 during the BNP government, while initial proposals for such an initiative came in 1961 during the Pakistan era.
From 2009 to 2013, feasibility studies were conducted by experts from Bangladesh, Australia and Pakistan. Later, till 2016, the Jal Vikas Board worked on designing the project.