Evidence
Every figure on this site is listed here with the exact words of its source. Each quote has been checked by machine against a saved copy of the source (a downloaded PDF or a dated snapshot of the web page), so the claim cannot quietly drift from what the source says.
Every figure, with its source
How many rivers
Bangladesh officially has 1,415 rivers.
“Shipping Minister Shaikh Rabiul Alam on Thursday said Bangladesh has a total of 1,415 rivers according to a list prepared jointly by the Ministry of Shipping, Ministry of Water Resources, National River Conservation Commission, Bangladesh Water Development Board, divisional commissioners, deputy commissioners and river activists.”
The list was published on 14 April 2025 (1 Baishakh 1432) and restated in Parliament on 25 June 2026.
United News of Bangladesh, 25 Jun 2026 · original · also: Ministry of Water Resources, Government of Bangladesh, 14 Apr 2025, Bonik Barta, 15 Apr 2025
The official count went from 405 (BWDB, 2011) to 907 (NRCC, August 2023), 1,008, 1,156 (December 2024 draft), 1,294 (March 2025 draft) and 1,415 (April 2025).
“Development Board in a publication in 2011 said the number of rivers in the country is 405.”
Prothom Alo, 26 Aug 2023 · original · also: Prothom Alo, 26 Aug 2023, Bonik Barta, 15 Apr 2025
Researchers say many rivers are still missing from official lists: river researcher Mahbub Siddiqui has identified 1,908.
“I've been studying rivers for 30 years. Our research has identified 1,908 rivers so far.”
Said about the 1,294-river draft of March 2025, which left out rivers in the Sundarbans, the hill districts and the Barind.
57 rivers are transboundary: 54 shared with India and 3 with Myanmar.
“প্রবাহিত ৫৭টি আন্তঃসীমান্ত নদীর উৎপত্তিস্থল ... বাংলাদেশ ও ভারতের মধ্যে প্রবাহিত ৫৪ টি আন্তঃসীমান্ত নদীর ... ৫৭। নাফ উত্তরাঞ্চলীয় পাহাড়ী এলাকা মায়ানমার”
In English: 57 transboundary rivers flowing between Bangladesh and India and between Bangladesh and Myanmar ... 54 transboundary rivers flowing between Bangladesh and India ... no. 57, Naf, northern hill area, Myanmar (the last of three Myanmar rows, nos. 55 to 57).
The Joint Rivers Commission's own table. The Ministry of Water Resources figure quoted by The Daily Star (28 Sep 2025) is the same: 57, of which 54 with India and 3 with Myanmar.
Joint Rivers Commission, 2022 · original · also: The Daily Star, 28 Sep 2025, Dhaka Tribune, 27 Sep 2026
The river commission's 2022 report lists the most rivers in Sunamganj (94), Khulna (84) and Netrokona (82), and the fewest in Noakhali (2) and Chandpur (3). A river that crosses districts is counted in each.
“২০ সিলেট সুনামগঞ্জ ৯৪ ... ০১ খুলনা খুলনা ৮৪ ... ২২ ময়মনসিংহ নেত্রকোণা ৮২ ... ৫৯ চট্টগ্রাম নোয়াখালী ০২ ... ৫৭ চট্টগ্রাম চাঁদপুর ০৩”
Table 'বাংলাদেশের বিভিন্ন জেলার উপর দিয়ে প্রবাহিত নদ-নদীর বিভাগওয়ারী তথ্য', pp. 19-29, read from the scanned pages (research/text/manual/nrcc-ar2022-ch1.txt); all 64 districts are on the atlas.
Laid end to end, the 1,415 rivers on the official list measure 35,706 km.
How it was computed: sum of the দৈর্ঘ্য (কিঃমিঃ) column over all 1,415 rows. Recomputed from
data/official-coverage.json#total_kmon every check.Computed from our decode of the official list (scripts/decode-official-list.py, validated against the page images). A river that crosses districts is counted once.
Ministry of Water Resources, Government of Bangladesh, 14 Apr 2025 · original
On the 2025 official list, Sunamganj has the most rivers (113), then Khulna (105) and Netrokona (92). A river that crosses districts counts in each.
How it was computed: count of rows whose district column names the district. Recomputed from
data/official-coverage.json#per_district.Sunamganjon every check.Ministry of Water Resources, Government of Bangladesh, 14 Apr 2025 · original
49 of the 57 shared rivers rise outside Bangladesh (in India, Tibet or Myanmar). Six rise inside Bangladesh and flow out, and two rise on the border.
How it was computed: the origin column of the JRC table, read row by row. Recomputed from
data/transboundary-summary.json#rise_abroadon every check.Read from the printed origin of each river (scripts/build-transboundary.py, origin_side). Inside Bangladesh: Betna-Kodalia, Atrai, Punarbhaba, Tetulia, Tangon and Kulik. On the border: Feni (Tripura and Khagrachhari) and Matamuhuri (Lushai hills on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border).
The JRC reports that the border has not been permanently fixed along about 140 km of the Ichamati-Kalindi-Raimangal, about 30 km of the Kushiyara, about 2 km of the Muhuri and about 10 km of the Sonai in Satkhira. On the other shared rivers it says the boundary, along the mid-stream or a bank, is already fixed.
“ইছামতি-কালিন্দী-রায়মঙ্গল নদীতে প্রায় ১৪০ কিমি, কুশিয়ারা নদীতে প্রায় ৩০ কিমি, মুহুরী নদীতে প্রায় ২ কিমি এবং সাতক্ষীরার সোনাই নদীতে ... স্থায়ী সীমানা হিসেবে নির্ধারণ করা হয়নি মর্মে জানা যায় ... আন্তর্জাতিক সীমারেখা নদীর মধ্যস্রোত বা যে কোনো দেশের তীর বরাবর হলেও তা ইতোমধ্যে স্থায়ীভাবে নির্ধারণ করা হয়েছে বলে জানা যায়”
In English: on the Ichamati-Kalindi-Raimangal about 140 km, the Kushiyara about 30 km, the Muhuri about 2 km and Satkhira's Sonai about 10 km ... it is known that these have not been fixed as the permanent boundary ... although the international boundary runs along the mid-stream or either country's bank, it is known to be already fixed permanently.
The JRC's own note under the table. It adds that the Satkhira Sonai has not been identified as a transboundary river between the two countries.
Dying and drying rivers
At least 79 of the 1,156 government-listed rivers have dried up or are drying up (RDRC study 'Dried Up Rivers of Bangladesh', 2025).
“At least 79 of the government-listed 1,156 rivers flowing through the country have dried up or are in the process of drying up in recent times, threatening livelihoods, agriculture, and local biodiversity.”
The study used government data, academic papers and newspaper reports from January 2023 to December 2024.
The RDRC study lists 81 entries: 79 named rivers plus 'distributaries of the Jamuna' and 'some distributaries of the Padma'.
“81 rivers vanishing across Bangladesh; study warns of ecological crisis”
Reported in March 2025 as 'at least 79' (The Daily Star) and in April 2025 as 81 with every name (UNB). 49 of the 79 named rivers can be drawn from OpenStreetMap; several names (Ichamati, Kumar, Sonai, Katakhali) belong to more than one river, so they are listed but not drawn.
Most of these rivers are heavily silted and dry up in the lean season, mainly because water is diverted upstream; parts of some have vanished under encroachment.
“All of these rivers are heavily silted and either completely or partially dry up during the lean period, mainly due to water diversion upstream. Meanwhile, large portions of some rivers have disappeared in recent years due to encroachment, according to the study published yesterday.”
Bangladesh has 6,200 km of navigable waterways in the dry season and 8,000 km in the monsoon.
“At present, the country has 6,200 kilometres of navigable waterways during the dry season, which increases to 8,000 kilometres during the monsoon season, he said.”
At Kaunia, the Teesta's peak discharge fell from 8,577 m³/s (2004) to 1,629 m³/s (2013), and its annual minimum dropped to 1.47 m³/s in 2012. The basin supports 11.5 million people and about 14% of Bangladesh's farmland.
“The results indicate that the maximum discharge has significantly decreased from 8577 m3/s in 2004 to 1629 m3/s in 2013 at Kaunia station. Additionally, the annual minimum discharge dropped to 1.47 m3/s in 2012.”
Waterlogging from silted rivers cut farmland in five Manirampur (Jashore) unions from 6,721 ha to 3,112 ha between 1980 and 2019, while standing water grew from 2,030 to 4,993 ha.
“Agricultural land area has been drastically reduced from 6720.84 to 3112.11 ha. Correspondingly, water bodies have increased from 2030.04 to 4993.2 ha.”
Rivers already lost
158 rivers dried up in the 57 years from 1963 to 2020: 115 by 2000 (Bangladesh Disaster Forum) and 43 more from 2000 to 2020 (Uttaran).
“43 rivers have dried up over the past 20 years (2000 to January 2020)”
Prothom Alo combines two counts: the Bangladesh Disaster Forum (2010) found 115 rivers dried up or near extinction between 1963 and 2000; the NGO Uttaran counted 43 more.
The River and Delta Research Centre counts 1,274 rivers in 1971 and says 507 have vanished since.
“According to the group, there were a total of 1,274 rivers in Bangladesh in 1971, when the country gained independence. Since then, a total of 507 have vanished.”
RDRC chairman Mohammad Azaz to Anadolu Agency, June 2022. A research group's estimate, not an official count.
River grabbing
57,390 individuals and organisations had grabbed 770 rivers; 18,579 were evicted in a year.
“As many as 57,390 individuals and organisations grabbed the country's 770 rivers. Of them, 18,579 have been evicted in the last one year by deputy commissioners of different districts.”
The NRCC chairman said at least 10 percent of encroachers were locally and politically influential, one reason evictions failed.
“one of the reasons why the eviction drives couldn't achieve the desired goal was that at least 10 percent of the encroachers were locally and politically influential”
The NRCC's Annual Report 2019 identified 63,249 grabbers of over 700 rivers.
“National Rivers Conservation Commission (NRCC) has so far identified 63,249 grabbers of over 700 rivers across the country. Among those, 18,782 were evicted in last one year by BIWTA and district administrations.”
The NRCC's updated list counted 21,988 illegal river encroachers as of 23 December 2025; eviction starts after the list is verified.
“As of December 23, 2025, there were 21,988 illegal river encroachers across Bangladesh, he said.”
A new, re-verified list; not comparable with the older 57,390 and 63,249 counts.
District administrations listed 28,799 illegal occupiers of rivers, canals and water bodies in 62 districts for the NRCC's 2022 annual report. Madaripur and Meherpur sent no data. The most are in Narayanganj (2,980), Faridpur (2,591), Cumilla (2,322) and Mymensingh (2,074).
“*(মাদারীপুর এবং মেহেরপুর জেলার তথ্য পাওয়া যায়নি)”
How the number was made: counted from the pages of the source and recomputed from
data/nrcc-evictions-2022.json#totals.occupierson every check.In English: *(No information was received from Madaripur and Meherpur districts)
Table 3.02, chapter 7, source given as the district administrations. Transcribed from the scanned pages into research/text/manual/nrcc-ar2022-ch7.txt and summed by scripts/build-district-evictions.py. Barishal's printed total (2,446) is 9 below the sum of its six districts (2,455); the districts are used as printed.
In the 62 districts that reported, evictions of river occupiers fell from 9,611 in 2021 to 3,508 in 2022, a drop of 64%.
“২০২১ সালে উচ্ছেদের সংখ্যা ... ২০২২ সালে উচ্ছেদের সংখ্যা”
How the number was made: counted from the pages of the source and recomputed from
data/nrcc-evictions-2022.json#totals.evicted_2022on every check.In English: number evicted in 2021 ... number evicted in 2022
Table 3.02, chapter 7, district by district (source: the district administrations). Sums of the district rows. The report does not say why evictions fell.
Pollution
An RDRC physical survey of 56 rivers across seven divisions (2022) found every one of them polluted.
“Physical survey and testing the water of 56 selected rivers in Dhaka, Khulna, Sylhet, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Barishal and Chattogram divisions, the Rivers and Delta Research Centre in 2022 found that each one of them is polluted”
490 polluting industries around Dhaka.
“490 polluting industries in Dhaka”
Dhaka's rivers and wetlands
Dhaka's water bodies shrank from 2,952 ha in 1960 to 1,991 ha in 2008 (−32.6%); its lowlands shrank by 52.6%. Land filling and encroachment were the main causes.
“In 1960, the total area of water bodies and lowlands were 2952.02 and 13527.58 ha, respectively. Whereas in 1988, the total area of the same decreased to 2103.62 and 12717.73 ha, respectively. This deteriorated further, occupying an area of 1990.71 ha in 2008 which indicates that the lowlands continued to decrease. Thus the water bodies and lowlands decreased by 32.57% and 52.58%, respectively during 1960 and 2008.”
About 15,000 hectares of permanent wetlands and floodplains in and around Dhaka have gone under concrete since the 1980s (World Bank estimate).
“According to World Bank estimates, nearly 15,000 hectares of permanent wetlands and floodplains in and around Dhaka have disappeared beneath concrete since the 1980s.”
In the 1960s Dhaka had roughly 175 canals, beels and water bodies and about 13,500 ha of low-lying flood-retention land.
“Earlier, in the 1960s, Dhaka had approximately 13,500 hectares of low-lying flood-retention areas. The city was encircled by the Buriganga, Turag, Balu and Shitalakkhya rivers, while an intricate network of roughly 175 canals, beels and water bodies crisscrossed the urban landscape.”
95 of Dhaka's canals have been lost or cut to less than half their length in 80 years.
“In Dhaka, for example, 95 canals have been lost or reduced to less than half of their original length over the past 80 years, as a recent study has shown.”
Erosion
From 1990 to 2020 the Jamuna's left bank eroded by an average of 52 m a year, its right bank by 12 m a year.
“On average, the right bank of the river experienced an erosion rate of -11.97 m/year, while the left bank eroded at an average rate of -52.44 m/year.”
In Munshiganj, Madaripur and Shariatpur the Padma ate 23,661 ha of arable land in 35 years (1988-2023).
“In 35 years, arable land (23661.21 ha) suffered the most erosion (55.42%), followed by inland water (3351.53 ha), which suffered the least (7.15%).”
CEGIS and BWDB forecast that erosion by the Jamuna, Padma and Ganges would leave about 21,750 people landless and homeless in 2009 alone, eating 2,178 ha in 17 districts.
“About 21,750 people of several riverbank areas are likely be landless and homeless as erosions by the Jamuna, Padma and Ganges rivers will devour 2,178 hectares of land in 17 districts of the country this year.”
People affected
Since 1973, about 1.6 million people have lost their homes to erosion by the Jamuna, Ganges and Padma (CEGIS, 2015).
“Since 1973, 1.6 million people become homeless due to the major rivers (Jamuna, Ganges and Padma) bank erosion (CEGIS 2015).”
CEGIS figure as cited in a peer-reviewed paper; the CEGIS report itself is not online.
About 6.5 million people, 5% of the population, live on chars (river islands).
“Some of Bangladesh’s most vulnerable and impoverished citizens reside in the Char lands. The Chars are home to about 6.5 million people, or 5% of Bangladesh’s total population.”
In a Faridpur char village, every household had lost land and been displaced; erosion hit farming (93%), livestock (64%), wage labour (61%) and fishing (35%) livelihoods.
“the charland dwellers face repeated land degradation (100%) that forced them frequent displacement (100%), which cause disruption of their Income generating Activities (IGAs). In addition, erosion affects their total livelihood based on agriculture (93.44%), pastoral (63.93%), wage labor (61.48%), and fishing (35.25%)”
Teesta erosion displaced more than 20,000 families in a decade, by BWDB data.
“According to WDB data, more than 20,000 families have been displaced by river erosion in the past decade, with nearly 35 kilometres of riverbank severely eroded.”
The law
An amendment to the NRCC Act 2013 is under way: encroachment and pollution would become criminal offences, with separate river courts.
“Under the proposed amendments, river encroachment and pollution will be treated as criminal offences. The law is also expected to provide for the establishment of separate river courts, investigation of complaints related to river grabbing, assessment and recovery of compensation for pollution, as well as the filing and monitoring of cases.”
In 2019 the High Court declared the Turag, and every river in Bangladesh, a living entity, with the NRCC as its legal guardian. The Appellate Division disposed of the appeal on 17 February 2020 and barred the government from leasing or selling any river land.
“The Government must be very cautious about deciding the matter and the Government shall not under any circumstances lease or sale any land within the boundary of river Turag including foreshore areas, or for that matter, any other river of Bangladesh”
High Court Division judgment and order of 30.01.2019 and 03.02.2019 (Writ Petition No. 13989 of 2016).
Appellate Division, Supreme Court of Bangladesh, 17 Feb 2020 · original · also: United News of Bangladesh, 3 Feb 2019, Prothom Alo, 2019, Prothom Alo, 26 Aug 2023
The river commission, in its own words
The river commission says it runs on an annual budget of Tk 5 crore, with three vehicles, no boat of its own and a rented building, and that for lack of money it cannot carry out its work properly.
“কমিশনের ফান্ডের অপ্রতুলতা রয়েছে, নিজস্ব নৌযান নেই। বর্তমানে কমিশন একটি ভাড়া করা ভবনে থেকে কার্যক্রম পরিচালনা করছে। বর্তমানে অর্থের অভাবে কমিশন ঠিকমত কার্যক্রম চালাতে পারছে না। কমিশনের বার্ষিক বাজেট ৫ কোটি টাকা এবং নিজস্ব তিনটি গাড়ি রয়েছে।”
In English: The Commission's funds are insufficient; it has no vessel of its own. It currently operates from a rented building. For lack of money the Commission cannot run its activities properly. Its annual budget is Tk 5 crore and it has three vehicles of its own.
NRCC Annual Report 2022, chapter on its limitations and challenges (published 31 Jul 2024).
The commission has 48 officers and staff to protect every river, canal and water body in Bangladesh.
“দেশের সকল নদ নদী খাল বিল ও জলাশয় রক্ষায় কমিশনে মাত্র ৪৮ জন কর্মকর্তা ও কর্মচারী আপ্রাণ কাজ করছে।”
In English: Only 48 officers and staff of the Commission are working hard to protect all the rivers, canals, beels and water bodies of the country.
The commission names interference by influential quarters as a major obstacle to evicting river grabbers, and calls the money for evictions 'utterly insufficient'.
“নদ-নদীর অবৈধ দখলদার উচ্ছেদে জেলা প্রশাসনের অনুকূলে বরাদ্দকৃত অর্থ নিতান্তই অপ্রতুল। প্রভাবশালী মহলের হস্তক্ষেপ নদীর দখল-উচ্ছেদ একটি বড় অন্তরায় মর্মে কমিশন মনে করে।”
In English: The money allocated to district administrations to evict illegal river grabbers is utterly insufficient. The Commission considers the interference of influential quarters a major obstacle to evicting river grabbers.
Most factories don't install effluent treatment plants, those that have one don't run it to save money, and the commission has no divisional offices to check on the ground.
“শিল্পকারখানাগুলোর অধিকাংশই Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) স্থাপন করে না। আবার (ETP) থাকলেও অর্থ সাশ্রয় এর লক্ষ্যে কারখানাগুলো ইটিপি চালু রাখে না। কমিশনের বিভাগীয় কার্যালয় না থাকায় সরেজমিনে এ সকল অনিয়ম নজরদারী করা সম্ভবপর হয়ে ওঠেনা।”
In English: Most factories do not install an Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP). Even where there is one, factories do not keep it running, to save money. With no divisional offices, the Commission cannot monitor these irregularities on the ground.
The commission says river data lies scattered and out of reach, and that Bangladesh needs a world-class river information centre under the NRCC.
“বাংলাদেশের নদীগুলির তথ্যাদি বিভিন্ন স্থানে বিচ্ছিন্নভাবে রয়েছে। ... জাতীয় নদী রক্ষা কমিশনের তত্ত্বাবধানে একটি বিশ্বমানের নদী তথ্যকেন্দ্র স্থাপন করা প্রয়োজন।”
In English: Information on Bangladesh's rivers lies scattered in different places. ... A world-class river information centre needs to be set up under the supervision of the National River Conservation Commission.
The NRCC's 2022 annual report lists 204 actions the Commission took against the grabbing of rivers, canals and water bodies in 2022. For 140 of them it says no information on implementation progress was found. For 23 more it records only that a reminder was sent, and only 41 carry any update.
“বাস্তবায়ন অগ্রগতির তথ্য পাওয়া যায় নি”
How the number was made: counted from the pages of the source and recomputed from
data/nrcc-actions-summary.json#no_infoon every check.In English: implementation progress information was not found
Table 3.01, chapter 7 (pp. 40-80 of the report): serial, division, district, the Commission's action, date and memo number, who has to act, and a progress column. The progress cell is often merged over several actions; each action takes the cell that covers it. 140 is the report's wording, sometimes after a reminder (6 actions) and sometimes slightly varied (অগ্রগতি প্রতিবেদন পাওয়া যায় নি). Counted from the scanned pages and checked against every page image (scripts/count-ch7-actions.py, scripts/build-nrcc-actions.py). The report does not say why the information is missing.
The NRCC says it has been made a party in 132 court cases about rivers, canals and water bodies: 96 in the High Court Division, 4 in the Appellate Division and 32 in lower courts.
“জাতীয় নদী রক্ষা কমিশনকে পক্ষভুক্ত করা হয়েছে এমন মামলার সংখ্যা মোট ১৩২ টি। এক্ষেত্রে মহামান্য হাইকোর্ট বিভাগে ৯৬ টি, আপিল বিভাগে ৪টি এবং নিম্ন আদালতে ৩২ টি মামলা রয়েছে।”
In English: The total number of cases in which the National River Conservation Commission has been made a party is 132. Of these, 96 are in the High Court Division, 4 in the Appellate Division and 32 in lower courts.
First page of the report's chapter on court cases (Annual Report 2022). Retained lawyers and the solicitor's department run the cases, the report says.
Rivers missing from the list
The Bogura Water Development Board declared two rivers, the 29 km Ghoria and the 19.5 km Chandrabati, 'missing' and left them off the district's river list, although older official records name both.
“The Water Development Board, the agency responsible for protecting rivers, has officially declared two rivers in Bogura—the 29 km-long Ghoria and the 19.5 km-long Chandrabati—as "missing," raising serious concerns over river identification and possible encroachment in the region. ... "If anyone finds these rivers, they should inform us. We will then add them to our list," said Nazmul Haque, executive engineer at the Bogura Water Development Board. ... The board submitted a list of 23 rivers, again omitting the Ghoria and Chandrabati. ... A 2009 publication by the Bogura District Administration references the Chandrabati River in Dupchanchia upazila, while another publication, Nodnodir Nam (Names of Rivers in Bangladesh), lists the Ghoria River as flowing through Gabtali upazila. ... Records from the National River Protection Commission also mention Ghoria and Chandrabati as rivers in Bogura.”
The March 2025 draft list left out more than 500 rivers of the Sundarbans, the Barind and the three hill districts; 227 Sundarbans rivers were skipped because officials said they could not verify them on the ground.
“The official count does not include rivers from the Sundarbans, Barind region, or the three hill districts, leaving out more than 500 rivers from the draft list. ... 227 rivers flowing inside the Sundarbans have not been included because officials claim they couldn’t physically verify them due to the forest’s dense terrain.”
Only 378 of the 1,415 official rivers could be matched by name to a line or point on OpenStreetMap, Wikidata or GeoNames inside the district the list gives. The other 1,037 could not be found on any open map by name.
How it was computed: each official name, in Bangla and as a consonant skeleton of its English spellings, searched in OpenStreetMap, Wikidata and GeoNames within 10 km of its official districts. Recomputed from
data/official-coverage.json#coverage.eitheron every check.A strict match (exact name or exact consonant skeleton, inside the district), so this is a floor: a river mapped under a very different spelling is not counted.
Ministry of Water Resources, Government of Bangladesh, 14 Apr 2025 · original
Sand quarries
District administrations reported 348 sand quarries (balumahal) in 2024: 223 leased out, for Tk 3.1 billion in lease money, with 1.64 billion cubic feet of sand to be extracted.
“বালুমহালের সংখ্যা 348; ইজারাকৃত বালুমহাল 223; ইজারাবিহীন বালুমহাল 125; মোট ইজারা মূল্য (টাকা) 3,107,536,067; উত্তোলনযোগ্য বালুর পরিমান (ঘনফুট) 1,638,553,431”
District administrations, published by the NRCC, 2024 · original
In 25 of Bangladesh's 64 districts, the district administration reported that no hydrographic survey was done before its sand quarries were declared; in 4 more, only some quarries were surveyed.
“না (no survey): রাজবাড়ি, রাজশাহী, জয়পুরহাট, নওগাঁ, চাঁপাইনবাবগঞ্জ, পাবনা, রংপুর, পঞ্চগড়, দিনাজপুর, চাঁদপুর, লক্ষ্মীপুর, কক্সবাজার, খাগড়াছড়ি, ফেনী, বরগুনা, পিরোজপুর, বাগেরহাট, মাগুরা, কুষ্টিয়া, ময়মনসিংহ, জামালপুর, নেত্রকোনা, শেরপুর, মৌলভীবাজার, হবিগঞ্জ = 25 districts”
Column 'বালুমহাল ঘোষণার পূর্বে হাইড্রোগ্রাফিক জরিপ হয়েছিল কিনা (হ্যাঁ/না)' of the table, read district by district from the rendered pages: 14 yes, 25 no, 4 partly, 2 gave no information, 19 have no sand quarry.
District administrations, published by the NRCC, 2024 · original
Climate outlook
Bangladesh could have 13.3 million internal climate migrants by 2050 in the World Bank's pessimistic scenario (range 6.8 to 19.9 million).
“In the pessimistic reference scenario, there will be 13.3 million climate migrants by 2050 (with a range of 6.8 –19.9 million), which translates into 7.5 percent of the total population (with a range of 3.8–11.3 percent)”
More than three-quarters of Bangladesh's people, 134 million, are at risk of falling living standards by 2050 from rising temperature and erratic rain.
“Temp rising to affect living standards of 134m Bangladeshis, says World Bank ... This could cost Bangladesh 6.7 per cent of Gross Domestic Product and depress the living standards of more than three-quarters of the country's population”
World Bank press release, 26 September 2018, on the South Asia's Hotspots report.
World Bank, 2018 · original · also: Mani et al., 2018
Sources
Grouped by kind. "Saved" means a copy is kept in the project archive, so the evidence survives if the original page changes.
Official records
বাংলাদেশের নদ-নদীর তালিকা, ১লা বৈশাখ ১৪৩২ (List of the rivers of Bangladesh, 1 Baishakh 1432)
53 pages, 1,415 numbered rows: river name, division, district, upazila, source, mouth, length (km), local names. The PDF's text layer garbles Bangla vowel signs; read the PDF itself for names. The NRCC publishes the identical file (same checksum) on nrcc.gov.bd under নদ-নদীর তালিকা.
Open the sourceSaved PDF in the project archive
বাংলাদেশ - ভারত এবং বাংলাদেশ - মিয়ানমারের মধ্যে প্রবাহিত ৫৭টি আন্তঃসীমান্ত নদীর উৎপত্তিস্থল, মোট দৈর্ঘ্য, সীমান্ত বরাবর দৈর্ঘ্য, প্রস্থ, প্রবেশমুখ ও পতিতমুখ সম্বলিত প্রতিবেদন (Report on the 57 transboundary rivers between Bangladesh and India and Bangladesh and Myanmar: origin, length, border length, width, entry point and mouth)
8 pages, 57 numbered rows (54 with India, 3 with Myanmar). The PDF's metadata says it was made on 26 Feb 2022; the JRC website file address shows an upload in December 2024. Its sources are the Water Development Board's Rivers of Bangladesh (2011), IUCN's Rivers Beyond Borders (2014), the Land Record and Survey Department and Google Map. The PDF's text layer scrambles the Bangla letters; we rebuilt it from the font's glyphs (scripts/decode-jrc-transboundary.py, transcription in research/text/manual/jrc-2022-transboundary.txt). Three rows (Dharla, Dudhkumar, Brahmaputra) also give lengths in Bhutan and China. Typos in the original are kept as printed: rows 19 and 20 say পশ্চিমগঞ্জ where পশ্চিমবঙ্গ is meant, and row 41 spells Kulaura কুলাঊড়া. Checked against the page images, row by row.
Open the sourceSaved PDF in the project archive
বার্ষিক প্রতিবেদন ২০২২: বাংলাদেশে নদ-নদী, খাল-বিল ও জলাশয় রক্ষায় জাতীয় নদী রক্ষা কমিশনের সীমাবদ্ধতা ও চ্যালেঞ্জ (Annual Report 2022: the Commission's limitations and challenges)
Scanned pages with no text layer; the quotes are checked against a transcription read from the page images (research/text/manual/nrcc-ar2022-ch10.txt).
Open the sourceSaved PDF in the project archive
বার্ষিক প্রতিবেদন ২০২২: বাংলাদেশের নদ-নদী, খাল-বিল ও জলাশয় (Annual Report 2022: rivers, canals and water bodies, district by district)
Scanned. Lists each district's rivers by name.
Open the sourceSaved PDF in the project archive
বার্ষিক প্রতিবেদন ২০২২: বাংলাদেশের নদ-নদী, খাল-বিল ও জলাশয়ের দখল ও উচ্ছেদের তথ্য (Annual Report 2022: encroachment and eviction actions)
50 scanned pages. Table 3.01 (pp. 40-80): the Commission's 204 actions in 2022, district by district, with a progress column. Table 3.02 (pp. 81-82): illegal occupiers and evictions in 2021 and 2022 by district, from the district administrations, then charts of the same figures. Transcription and notes: research/text/manual/nrcc-ar2022-ch7.txt. The action counts were made from the page images (scripts/count-ch7-actions.py) and checked on every page.
Open the sourceSaved PDF in the project archive
বার্ষিক প্রতিবেদন ২০২২: বাংলাদেশের নদ-নদী, খাল-বিল ও জলাশয়ের দখল, দূষণ ও নাব্যতা সংক্রান্ত মামলার বিবরণ (Annual Report 2022: court cases on encroachment, pollution and navigability)
8 scanned pages: the number of cases the Commission is a party to, then table 6.01 with the 96 High Court cases (writ number, subject, the Commission's step). The quote is checked against a transcription read from the page image (research/text/manual/nrcc-ar2022-courts.txt). The 96-row table is not counted or analysed.
Open the sourceSaved PDF in the project archive
জেলা প্রশাসন কর্তৃক প্রেরিত ২০২৪ (বাংলা-১৪৩১) সালের বালুমহালের তথ্য (District administrations' 2024 returns on sand quarries)
Figures read from the rendered pages; the PDF's text layer scrambles Bangla letters. Transcription: research/text/manual/nrcc-sand-2024.txt.
Open the sourceSaved PDF in the project archive
Court records
Civil Petition for Leave to Appeal No. 3039 of 2019 (Turag river living-status case), from the High Court Division judgment of 30.01.2019 and 03.02.2019 in Writ Petition No. 13989 of 2016
Open the sourceSaved PDF in the project archive
Peer-reviewed papers
Changes in wetlands in Dhaka City: Trends and physico-environmental consequences
doi.org/10.3329/jles.v5i0.7348Saved PDF in the project archive
Study of erosion and accretion of Jamuna River using GIS and remote sensing technology
Open the sourceSaved PDF in the project archive
Seasonal flow variability and stage dynamics of the Teesta River: Insights from 29 years of multi-station data
Open the sourceSaved PDF in the project archive
Riverbank erosion trend analysis and its impact on socio-economic condition of the inhabitants of Islampur upazila in Jamalpur district
Open the sourceSaved PDF in the project archive
Land cover change using GIS and RS techniques of the Padma River floodplain in the three adjacent districts in Bangladesh
doi.org/10.3329/jnujsci.v10i1.71249Saved PDF in the project archive
Livelihood patterns of char people: A study on Madarganj upazila at Jamalpur
doi.org/10.52631/jemds.v5i2.370Saved PDF in the project archive
Exploring the socio-ecological vulnerability and livelihood insecurities of the riverbank erosion-affected charland displacees in Bangladesh
doi.org/10.64102/rujssbs.0486Saved PDF in the project archive
Climate change induced human displacement in Bangladesh: Implications on the livelihood of displaced riverine island dwellers and their adaptation strategies
doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.964648Saved PDF in the project archive
Geospatial analysis of waterlogging impacts on land use/cover in Jashore District, Bangladesh (1980-2019)
doi.org/10.59185/jgs.v1i1.268Saved PDF in the project archive
Polder to de-polder: An innovative sediment management in tidal basin in the southwestern Bangladesh
Open the sourceSaved PDF in the project archive
High-resolution mapping of global surface water and its long-term changes
Source of the JRC Global Surface Water layer on the map. Paywalled; the dataset itself is free (global-surface-water.appspot.com).
doi.org/10.1038/nature20584Link only
Assessing spatial vulnerability of Bangladesh to climate change and extremes: A geographic information system approach
Closed access (OpenAlex). Cited in the concept note; buy or request from the authors.
doi.org/10.1007/s11027-022-10013-wLink only
Bangladesh's dynamic coastal regions and sea-level rise
Open access, but ScienceDirect blocks scripted downloads. Save from a browser.
doi.org/10.1016/j.crm.2013.10.001Link only
Participatory arts and affective engagement with climate change: The missing link in achieving climate compatible behaviour change?
Green open access at Cardiff ORCA, behind a browser check. Save from a browser.
Comparative seasonal assessment of pollution and health risks associated with heavy metals in water, sediment and fish of Buriganga and Turag River in Dhaka City, Bangladesh
Gold open access; Springer blocks scripted downloads. Save from a browser.
doi.org/10.1007/s42452-021-04464-0Link only
Reports
Groundswell: Preparing for internal climate migration
Open the sourceSaved PDF in the project archive
South Asia's hotspots: The impact of temperature and precipitation changes on living standards
Open the sourceSaved PDF in the project archive
Bangladesh: Rising temperature affects living standards of 134 million people (press release)
World Bank press release of 26 Sep 2018. The World Bank page returned 'Page not found' on 30 Sep 2026, so the saved proof is the Financial Express report of the release (fe-2018-134m).
Open the sourceSaved as a dated PDF snapshot
News reports
Shipping Minister briefs Parliament on state of rivers
Open the sourceSaved as a dated PDF snapshot
Total number of rivers in BD now 1,415
Open the sourceSaved as a dated PDF snapshot
500+ rivers from Sundarbans, Barind & hills left out (BD now has 1,294 identified rivers)
Open the sourceSaved as a dated PDF snapshot
Number of rivers in Bangladesh is 907: National River Conservation Commission
Open the sourceSaved as a dated PDF snapshot
79 rivers dead or on deathbed: Reveals RDRC study
Reports the River and Delta Research Centre study 'Dried Up Rivers of Bangladesh' (lead researcher Mohammad Azaz). The study itself is not published online; ask RDRC for a copy.
Open the sourceSaved PDF in the project archive
81 rivers vanishing across Bangladesh; study warns of ecological crisis
Names all 81 rivers in the RDRC 'Dried-up Rivers of Bangladesh' study.
Open the sourceSaved as a dated PDF snapshot
Land of (dying) rivers (World Rivers Day 2025)
Open the sourceSaved PDF in the project archive
158 rivers dry up in 57 years
Open the sourceSaved as a dated PDF snapshot
Vanishing rivers stir concern in Bangladesh
Open the sourceSaved as a dated PDF snapshot
Unplanned dam construction: Nearly 500 rivers vanished in Bangladesh amid navigability crisis
Open the sourceSaved as a dated PDF snapshot
57,390 grabbers feast on 770 rivers
Open the sourceSaved as a dated PDF snapshot
63,249 river grabbers identified across the country: NRCC
Open the sourceSaved as a dated PDF snapshot
Dhaka built over floodplains, lost 15,000 hectares of wetlands
Open the sourceSaved as a dated PDF snapshot
Teesta cries for survival as northern Bangladesh's lifeline runs dry
Open the sourceSaved as a dated PDF snapshot
Erosion by three rivers to displace 22,000 this year (reports CEGIS & BWDB, 'Prediction of River Bank Erosion along the Jamuna, the Ganges and the Padma Rivers in 2009')
Open the sourceSaved as a dated PDF snapshot
1,415 rivers, but how many are truly alive?
Open the sourceSaved as a dated PDF snapshot
HC delivers landmark verdict, declares Turag as living being
Open the sourceSaved as a dated PDF snapshot
All rivers in Bangladesh declared living beings
Open the sourceSaved as a dated PDF snapshot
Are Ghoria, Chandrabati rivers in Bogura really 'missing'?
Open the sourceSaved as a dated PDF snapshot
শুকিয়ে যাচ্ছে দেশের ৮১ নদী, পরিবেশগত সংকটের শঙ্কা নতুন গবেষণায়
The RDRC list in Bangla, in the same order as UNB's English list: the source of the Bangla river names (scripts/rdrc-names.py).
Open the sourceSaved as a dated PDF snapshot
দেশের ৮১ নদী শুকিয়ে গেছে, জরুরি ব্যবস্থা নেওয়ার আহ্বান আরডিআরসির
Open the sourceSaved as a dated PDF snapshot
Map and satellite data
Global Surface Water Explorer, 1984-2021 (occurrence, change, transitions)
Tile layers used on the map. Credit: EC JRC/Google.
Open the sourceOpen dataset
Waterways of Bangladesh (waterway=river)
Open the sourceOpen dataset
World Imagery and World Imagery Wayback (archived releases since 2014)
Licensed under the Esri Master License Agreement (ArcGIS item 10df2279f9684e4a9f6a7f08febac2a9, checked 30 Sep 2026). Fine for this prototype; a public launch needs an ArcGIS account under Esri's terms or openly licensed imagery instead.
Open the sourceOpen dataset
GeoNames gazetteer, Bangladesh (2,018 named streams)
Point locations for rivers that have no named line in OpenStreetMap; used only where the point lies in the district the official list gives.
Open the sourceOpen dataset
Rivers of Bangladesh in Wikidata (2,569 items)
Open the sourceOpen dataset
Bangla Wikipedia articles on individual rivers (citing BWDB river numbers)
Used only to corroborate a river's district and its BWDB river number, never as the only source.
Open the sourceOpen dataset
How we checked
Research papers and reports were downloaded as PDFs; news reports were saved as PDF snapshots with the date and address printed on every page. Each figure on this site is stored with the exact sentence it comes from, and a script confirms that sentence appears in the saved copy. Where a figure is a research group's estimate rather than an official count, the text says so.
River statuses come only from published lists: "dead or drying" from the River and Delta Research Centre study Dried-up Rivers of Bangladesh (2025), and "grabbed or polluted" from The Daily Star's division-by-division list (World Rivers Day, 28 September 2025). A river without a label has not been assessed; that is a gap in the record, not evidence that the river is healthy.
Scanned documents (the river commission's annual report, the district sand-quarry returns) have no text to search, so we read the pages we quote off the page images and keep a transcription beside them; the check runs against that transcription, and each such source is marked on this page.
To place rivers that OpenStreetMap does not draw, we read each river's row in the government's list of 1,415 rivers (Ministry of Water Resources, April 2025) off the PDF itself, because the file's text layer scrambles Bangla letters. A map point from GeoNames, Wikidata or Bangla Wikipedia is used only when it lies in the district that row gives; otherwise the atlas shades the upazilas the row names. Names shared by several rivers are listed but not placed.
Satellite pictures are true-colour Landsat images (USGS Collection 2, surface reflectance) from the dry season of both years, rendered the same way so the years compare fairly, and Esri's archived World Imagery for the two Dhaka rivers. Surface-water change comes from the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (Pekel et al., Nature, 2016).