Young participants used a parliamentary format to press authorities on salinity, disaster preparedness, public services and special coastal allocations, with demands set for submission to Satkhira-4 MP.
Youth representatives in Bangladesh’s southwestern coastal district of Satkhira held a day-long shadow coastal water parliament on Saturday, July 18, to raise demands for safe water, stronger embankments and climate-resilient services for vulnerable communities.
The event, held at the Shyamnagar Upazila Freedom Fighter Complex auditorium under the slogan “Our water, our right”, was organised by youth organisation Sharub Youth Team with support from non-governmental organisations CDO, BARCIK and ActionAid.
Moderated by Shorub Youth Team director S M Jannatul Nayeem, the shadow parliament held its first session on proposals related to the water crisis and possible solutions. A second session focused on proposals concerning health, environment and climate.
Members representing the government and opposition benches presented arguments in a parliamentary format.
Shadow ministers spoke on behalf of the offices of the prime minister, the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Health and Family Planning, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, the Ministry of Water Resources and the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs.
The ruling party chief whip, ruling party whip, opposition leader, deputy opposition leader, opposition chief whip and opposition whip also spoke.
Through the speaker, government and opposition representatives raised issues including access to safe water, occupied ponds, access to public services, construction of sustainable embankments, infrastructure development for disaster preparedness, activation of union disaster management committees, youth representation, education, care for women and children, climate-resilient agriculture, the government’s tree plantation programme, special allocations for coastal areas, formation of a coastal board, measures to reduce salinity and distribution of the necessary number of rainwater harvesting drums to ensure drinking water access.
The opposition side placed several recommendations before the government side or the prime minister.
Jahura Binte Zaman Boni served as speaker and Shahin Islam as deputy speaker. Forty members of parliament from the government and opposition sides took part in the shadow parliament.
After the first session, speeches were delivered by teacher Ronjit Barmon, Southan Charity Foundation adviser Farhad Hossain, CDO official Touhid Hossain, foreign observer Tasfia and Sundarban Press Club president Belal Hossain.
At the closing ceremony of the second session, speakers included ActionAid Bangladesh officials Arif Siddiqui and Masud Parvez Abhi, Jahura Binte Zaman Boni, CDO executive director Shyamal Kumar Mondal, BARCIK regional coordinator Shahin Islam and assistant coordinator Ramkrishna Joarder.
Each participating parliament member received a certificate. Guests, the speaker, deputy speaker, prime minister and opposition leader were presented with crests. Nearly all participating members of parliament were youth representatives.
The main demands from the shadow parliament will be formally handed over to Gazi Nazrul Islam, the member of parliament for Satkhira-4, so they can be raised in Bangladesh’s national parliament.
