Reza Mahmud :
Most of the canals in the capital city have been occupied by the influential people. The occupation leads to water logging in every rainy season and when it rains.
The authorities finish their duties blamming influential persons for the grabbing. Others censure them for failure to recover.
“Frequently we operate eviction drives and clear the canals. But the grabbers come back soon.
Apart from this, the unconscious people use to throw their waste in the canals,” Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA) Managing Director Engineer Taqsem A Khan told The New Nation.
He also said that the WASA is trying to free all canals with the help of law enforcers and city corporations.
“It is a continuous process. The effort will continue,” he said.
According to Dhaka WASA, there are 26 canals in Dhaka city. Among them, seven canals are in Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) area.
But a report of Dhaka district administration shows there were 50 canals in the city. Eleven canals are under Dhaka South. They identified some canals divided into two parts and then concluded the numbers as 11.
City dwellers say that the canals have many enemies. Influential persons have built buildings, shops, garages and as they like. When contacted, DSCC Mayor Mohammad Sayeed Khokon told The New Nation, “We have freed Nandipara-Trimohini canal in February this year. The city corporation will continuously try to evict the illegal grabbers from the canals.”
Sayeed Khokon said, it is compulsory on our part to recover the canals to save the city from water logging.
The government may acquire lands for making the canals stream, he added. The DSCC arranged a meeting in its office ‘Nagar Bhaban’ on Janury 22. Deputy commissioner of Dhaka district and Managing Director of Dhaka WASA and other officials were present in the meeting. The meeting took decision to recover Nandipara-Chowmohini canal on February 6. It also decided to clean the canals to make those free from garbage to build strong water flow.
The decision to recover the canals was realized in time. But no more could be done.
Moreover, most of the canals are used as dustbins by the local people. As a result, the canals has lost flows. Eventually the city dwellers are facing untold water stagnant during monsoon.
The Katasur canal in the city’s Mohammadpur has nearly disappeared under the garbage of local people. WASA has set a signboard in the canal and asked the people not to throw rubbish in the canal. But who care? The people are using the canal as a open dustbin. Grabbing and pollution make the canal ineffective. Debdholai canal of Jatrabari’s Kajla and Dholpur area are also found in the same condition.
According to officials of WASA, Ibrahimpur canal, Diabari canal, Ramchandrapur canal, Segunbagicha canal, Khilgaon-Bashabo canal have almost disappeared.
Buildings and other establishments were constructed on those canals. The WASA has failed to recover those.
WASA officials said, 1.20 kilometer Segunbagicha canal, 1.50 kilometer long Khilgaon-Bashabo canal become ineffective due to full of solid rubbish. They said, a large portion of the Baunia canal of Mirpur has gone under grabbers.
The same condition was found in the case of Kallyanpur main canal. The Baishteki canal near the Benarashi Palli of Mirpur also become ineffective due to grabbing of its land.
The officials said, the solid concrete rubbish are difficult to clean. They said, the grabbers and the unconscious people are mainly responsible for death of the canals.
Dhaka North City Corporation Mayor Annisul Huq said in a programme in the city corporation office recently that it was not easy to recover the canals from grabbers.
“Whenever we try to conduct eviction drive against the occupiers of canals then we found that it was not our task. There are huge limitation here. In such condition it is not possible to create a water stagnant free city.” When contacted, Bangaladesh Paribesh Andolon (BAPA) General Secretary M. A Matin said, “Without recovering our canals it is totally impossible to make Dhaka a water logging free city.”
