A LAW expected to be enacted late this year will greatly accelerate efforts to protect the nation’s rivers, a senior official with the Ministry of Transport said last week.

Retired Navy Captain Chit Khin, the director general of the Directorate of Water Resources and Improvement of River Systems, said the law was urgently needed to improve the environmental management of rivers and ensure they were safe for navigation.

The law will give the directorate responsibility for all matters involving rivers.

Captain Chit Khin said work on drafting the river law began in 1999 after the Waterways Department was replaced by the directorate.

The Attorney General’s Office was in the final stages of drafting the law and once it was completed it would be submitted for approval to the State Peace and Development Council by the Ministry of Transport.

Captain Chit Khin said details about the law could not be released until it was approved by the SPDC.

He said the importance of protecting rivers from pollution had been highlighted by surveys conducted by the directorate since 1999 of the environmental impact of waste from gold mines on the Chindwin and Ayeyarwaddy rivers.

Captain Chit Khin said that while it was important to exploit natural resources, gold miners neglected to pay attention to safeguarding the environment of rivers.

“When the river law is enacted we can stop them from doing this,” he said.

Captain Chit Khin said there was also concern about pollution from jade mines along the U-Ru River, a tributary of the Chindwin in upper Sagaing Division.

He said a resident who lived beside the U-Ru River had told him the waterway was once so clean and clear you could see fish in it “but now it is yellowish like the Yangon River because of run-off from jade mines.”

Captain Chit Khin said the river law would also empower the directorate to enforce navigation regulations.

He said it was common for boats to ignore warnings and orders issued by the directorate, especially at times of the year when river levels were low, and this had been the cause of accidents.

The river law would help to rectify this situation, Captain Chit Khin said.

Another concern that the law would address involved the activities of fishermen, whose nets and traps sometimes blocked navigation channels or impeded the flow of rivers.

The directorate could not act in such matters as they were the responsibility of the Fisheries Department.

“But when the river law is enacted we will be able to handle such problems,” Captain Chit Khin said.

The directorate operates a fleet of about 70 vessels on the nation’s rivers, which have a total navigable length of 6650 kilometres.

The fleet includes dredgers and survey, buoy-laying and general purpose vessels.