Riverine People partnered with Samakal Suhrid Samabesh jointly organized National River Olympiad first ever in Bangladesh to identify and encourage ‘river-talent’ amongst the university students since 2016-17. The inauguration of the Olympiad was held through starting of the first round at Begum Rokeya University in Rangpur on 20th October 2016. Upholding the theme ‘know your river, revive it better’, River Olympiad aimed to sensitize youth community to play a better role to conserve the rivers of Bangladesh.
Primarily, the River Olympiad was held among the students from nine public universities and Dhaka-based 11 private universities. The students from graduation level were eligible to participate in the first round. Total 10 different events in the first round. The universities those took part in the first round of the Olympiad were Begum Rokeya University, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST), Rajshahi University, Jagannath University; University of Dhaka, Khulna University, Chittagong University, Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), and Barisal University. In addition, there was a special session for the participants from 11 leading Private Universities held in Independent University of Bangladesh (IUB). Top 20 winners from the first round participated in the final round.
Around 200 participants attended the final round of the National River Olympiad on 22nd July 2017 at PKSF Auditorium at Agargaon, Dhaka. The chief guest of the final round was the Minister of Water Resource, Barrister Anisul Islam Mahmud.
Winner of the National River Olympiad was Arian Emon from Jagannath University. Along with the winners, top three project ideas were along being announced. Best project concept was from SUST. Second and third were from Rajshahi University and Begum Rokeya University respectively.