Moazzem Majhi, a boatman of Turag, used to come to the river when the first beam of the sun hugged the bank, since the riverway was in great demand at that time, as local people used it for their daily transportation. But at present, he reaches the river according to the timetables of nearby universities, since the students are the only source of passengers. Moreover, the students sail only for entertainment purposes; that's why Moazzem Majhi has to wait hours after hours for the passengers. Most days, he has to return with inadequate earnings.  

However, the picture of our riverways wasn't the same in the past, even twenty or thirty years earlier. At that period, our rivers were the main driving force of all transport, trade, commerce, and economy, and also provided many sources of livelihood. When the river transportation system was at its golden period, the river-route-based professions were also at the same page. Even our historical city, Dhaka, was first declared capital only for its enriched river-route in 1610 by Mughal Subedar Islam Khan with a new title “Jahangirnagar”. So, Dhaka is the capital from the river, by the river but for the river? The most pathetic but pragmatic answer is, “No”. The city which earned its title as capital for its glorious river-route, but the bitter truth is - the glorious river-routes lost their glory for the city; the alarming rate of industrial wastes and the thousands of pollutants in it are responsible for the cause. 

But majis like Moazzem are suffering from a demand crisis issue for the sudden invasion of motor-based land route vehicles, although more than 700 rivers are still flowing across the country. This sudden demand shortage is a great curse for most of the majhis of Dhaka city as Turag is not the only river of the city, there are also five more rivers in Dhaka such as the Buriganga and Dhaleshwari in the southeast, Tongi khal in the north, and Balu and Shitalakshya in the east. Moreover, these six rivers not only support the transport system but also support the trade and economic system ages after ages, centuries after centuries. Nevertheless, the scenario is antithetical to the past, especially to the boatmen's society that can barely manage their basic needs. The same scenario is pictured by Moazzem Majhi's expression, “ I have to do farming to bear our basic family needs alongside boating as the market price of daily necessities is too high to afford and the demand for river transportation is too low to earn enough.”

Despite the rivers losing their flow, they still have enough capacity to bear our daily transportation load. Although boatmanship is a traditional occupation, for this reason boatmen can neither continue the occupation nor give it up. “I can't give up boating as it has been our means of livelihood since the time of our forefathers”.Majhi also said, “ We, the boaters, didn’t have to suffer much as, once this Ashulia-Turag waterway was in great demand”. There are thousands of Moazzems in the whole country who are suffering from the shift of the transportation system entirely to a road or highway-based system, since the shift has a great impact on their livelihood. They can't take another livelihood easily as it has been their family's income source for generations after generations. This jeopardy has a great contribution to the increasing rate of unemployment. 

Despite having bridges and road systems on the same waterways, people are still suffering from heavy traffic congestion and the poor infrastructure also causes great suffering. The city dwellers' sufferings know no bound due to traffic congestion. An entirely roadway-based transport system causes this challenging issue. In this regard, restoration of our river transportation system can be a great solution both for the Moazzems and for the city's traffic issue and culture. Rivers are a part of Dhaka civilization; so the reformation of waterways can save our river-based culture, our city life, our economy as riverways are more affordable than roadways. Furthermore, the riverway is also environment-friendly. So,revamping of riverways can save our dying rivers alongside the fading glorious boating occupations and cultures as well.