Grabbers have filled a canal at Agargaon in the capital with wastes in a bid to encroach on it, leading to water-stagnation in the area. The photo was taken on Tuesday.
The perpetual encroachment on the Dhaka city’s canals was the prime reason behind water stagnation on the city’s roads during the rainy season, said officials.
In the past, 54 canals of the city naturally drained out rain water and sewerage, while at present there are only 13 canals in use.
Officials of two city corporations of Dhaka alleged that most of the time water stagnation occurred as the drains failed to drain out rain water into the canals.
From slums to the capital’s posh areas including Uttara, Gulshan, Dhanmondi, Banani, Rampura, Badda, Shantinagar, Khilgaon, Shantibagh, Rajarbagh, Mughdah, Mohammadpur, Mirpur, Pallabi, and different parts of old Dhaka, all go under water after a shower during the rainy season.
Encroachers have filled up at least 43 canals of the city and formalised ownership of the land over the canals during the latest Dhaka city survey.
On Wednesday, at a coordination meeting, Dhaka South City Corporation mayor Sayeed Khokon held land grabbers responsible for the water stagnation.
He also asked the district administration to report on the current status of all canals in the city immediately, said deputy commissioner of Dhaka district Md Salah Uddin.
However, as most of the encroachers belong to powerful quarters, the authorities expressed doubts over efforts to reclaim all the canals as most of them have been developed beyond reclamation.
Solid waste, dumping by industries and households due to poor waste management, is filling up the existing canals and obstructing their natural flow.
Most of the unoccupied portions of the city’s canals resemble landfills with waste piled up, forcing residents of adjacent areas to live in an inhumane environment.
Under a World Bank project, Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority constructed concrete embankments on both sides of some canals, including at Kalyanpur, Khilgaon-Bashabo, Baishteki, Segunbagicha, and Katasur.
Locals alleged that in the name of conserving the canals, the concrete embankment constructed beside some canals had actually narrowed down the canals and turned them into drains to facilitate land grabbers.
DSCC chief waste management officer commodore MK Bakhtiar said underground drains often overflew with dirty water at many final discharge points, which contributed to water stagnation.
‘There are now buildings and other structures on top of these final discharge points,’ he said.
Dhaka WASA managing director Taqsem A Khan told New Age they worked with 26 canals only.
So far we have recovered 13 canals, he said.
‘If there are canals outside these 26 canals, we do not use them,’ he said, adding that all canals were under the Dhaka district administration.
Dhaka district DC Salah Uddin said that the DSCC mayor had directed them to find out the present condition of the canals going by the RS record.
We were directed to identify illegal infrastructures and other occupants on the canals and then a joint drive will be carried out to reclaim the canals, he said.
Finding out their present condition will take about a month, he said.
Salah Uddin admitted that only a month after an eviction drive land grabbers are usually back occupying the canals.
Shipping ministry joint secretary (taskforce) Md Nur-ur-Rahman admitted that they had mostly worked on 13 canals.
‘The files on the other canals have not been opened in a long time,’ he said.
He said they would discuss the present condition of the remaining 41 canals in the next meeting of the national river protection taskforce.
While talking about repeated encroachment on the canals, the joint secretary said the task force is not an implementing body and the concerned ministries should stop the illegal occupation.
Source: New Age