Meet Our Riverkeeper
SHARIF JAMIL, Buriganga Riverkeeper
Coordinator, Waterkeepers Bangladesh
Member Secretary, Dhoritri Rokhhay Amra (DHORA) and former General Secretary of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (BAPA).
Other involvements:
Member, Board of Directors & Council Board Waterkeeper Alliance (WKA)
Executive Member, People’s SAARC Water Forum, Bangladesh (P SAARC WFB)
Member, South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR)
Executive Member, National Committee for Saving the Sundarbans (NCSS)
Executive Member, National River Saving Movement (JNRA)
National Coordinator, Save Indigenous Environment Movement (APRA)
Executive Director, Blue Planet Initiative (BPI)
The Buriganga Riverkeeper, Sharif Jamil, is an internationally recognized leader and activist in the global environmental and Human Rights movement. For more than two decades he has been organizing civic action for environmental justice in Bangladesh through involvement in the country’s largest civil society platforms like Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (BAPA) and Dhoritri Rokhhay Amra (DHORA). As the former General Secretary of BAPA and current Member Secretay of DHORA, Sharif Jamil has been working to save the country’s rivers, wetlands, forests, urban green spaces, and to protect the rights of indigenous groups whose livelihoods depend on environmental preservation in Bangladesh along with demanding climate justice at the global discousre. Sharif Jamil has consulted closely with the Waterkeeper Alliance starting in 2009 through attendance at the regional and global meetings and conferences as Buriganga Riverkeeper, a member of this international organization. He has been working with the Waterkeeper Alliance as an elected Regional Representative in the Waterkeeper Council since 2014. On 13 June 2019, he was declared as one of the 20 Waterkeeper Warriors in the world by the Waterkeeper Alliance on the eve of the 20th anniversary of this global platform. In June 2024, he was included as a member to the Board of Directors of Waterkeeper Alliance for the next three years.