The rivers of Bangladesh are so crucial to its existence that they have been recognised as "living entities" or "legal persons" with their own set of rights by the High Court, and the National River Conservation Commission (NRCC) has been appointed as the legal guardian of all rivers in the country. Despite this, despite the 17-point High Court judgment from July 2019 which clearly stated that "killing a river is virtually a collective suicide for all", and despite the prime minister herself giving several directives to the involved actors to protect rivers—the destruction of our rivers and other waterbodies continues unabated.