News And Events

Chittagong, 21 June 2016: Bangladesh observed World Hydrography Day on 21 June with an aim to highlighting the importance of Hydrography. World Hydrography Day provides the opportunity to enhance the public awareness about the vital role that hydrography plays in everyone’s life. This year the theme of the day is; “Hydrography – the key to well-managed seas and waterways”.

Bangladesh is one of the active members of Internal Hydrographic Organisation (IHO) and Navy acts as the focal point of all hydrographic matters in the sea area of Bangladesh. To commemorate the day, Bangladesh Navy organized a seminar at Chittagong naval area where representatives from different ministries and maritime stake holders, members of the National Hydrographic Committee and armed forces personnel were present. Rear Admiral Mohammad Makbul Hossain, OSP, BCGMS, ndu, psc; Chairman of National Hydrographic Committee graced the seminar as chief guest. Different important issues covering the requirement of innovative supplementary data gathering initiatives for blue economy such as seaborne trade and commerce, resource exploration and exploitation, ocean science and observation, defence and security etc were highlighted and the importance of hydrography in support of those activities were discussed. The seas and oceans are now acknowledged as major contributors to the world economy and over 90% of the world’s trade travels through sea. The greatest challenge for a seafarer is to minimize the maritime accident due to the limited knowledge about the navigational hazards lying along the way. In the context the basic premise of hydrography is to provide essential information to the mariners about the safe water ways through nautical charts and publications. Knowledge on the shape and the depth of the seafloor have a significant impact on how sea level rise, storm and tsunamis affect the coastline. Moreover, hydrography plays a vital role in pursuing the activities like oil/gas exploration, dredging activities, offshore construction, cables & pipelines laying, telecommunications, weather & climate science, environmental monitoring, aquaculture, mineral resources, energy, biomedicine, ocean science and  observation etc.