A REPORT published in an English Daily on Tuesday said the Prime Minister asked that illegal occupants of rivers be evicted at any cost irrespective of their political identity. The Prime Minister also asked to stop political manipulation and called for carrying the drive without considering any distinction between grabbers. She asked the ministries of local government, shipping, water, land, environment and home to take effective action to protect the rivers from grabbers no matter to which political parties they belonged. This move to initiate actions to retrieve the rivers around the capital city has certainly raised hopes among the environmental activists as well as the city dwellers who are suffering much due to an unbearable pollution spree in the city. On its face value, the decision is a welcome one and it is hoped it will come into effect soon to relieve the woes of the city’s citizens.
Though previously some initiatives were taken to this effect but unfortunately all were in vain due to some obstacles which were raised in the midst of the drives. No drive against the grabbers continued for long. This time also nothing serious will happen in the ultimate run. However, as the decision is from the chief executive of the country, there might be some moves from the petty bureaucrats like DCs or City Administrators or the BIWTA officials. If something real is to be done, then all bureaucratic hassles that hinder the move of the river retrieving process must be eliminated.
Earlier, a national taskforce was formed to evict the grabbers, but it failed to protect the Buriganga, Turag, Shitalakkhya, Balu and other rivers flowing by the capital city. Shipping Minister and also the Head of the taskforce acknowledged that despite efforts the rivers could not be retrieved completely due to involvement of a section of ruling party men and MPs along with the sand traders in the encroachments of several stretches of the rivers in Dhaka, Narayanganj and Comilla. It appears that the river and land grabbers have little respect or fear of the law.
The rivers (lands) are either directly or indirectly occupied by the influential persons who have easy access to or can walk through the long corridors of power. This power base of the land grabbers needs to be cut off first and then the laws should be allowed to take its own course. Otherwise, it may not work at all.
Another cause of dying of the rivers is low water flow. There is not enough water to roll down the rivers. Therefore, dying of the rivers (around the capital Dhaka city) has its origins in the withdrawal of water at the upper streams (in India). For augmenting the water flow in the rivers, the government would need to launch diplomatic offensive with Delhi to get the lawful share of water of the international rivers. But past experiences suggest the government of the day is not competent enough to match the South Block in Delhi, particularly in the changed scenario there.
Thus, we think the dirty polluted water will not stop flowing down the rivers around the capital city any time soon.
