Staff Reporter :
Green activists at a human chain programme on Saturday suggested for recovering low lands, canals and water-bodies to solve water logging problem in the city which continues to disturb the life of the dwellers.
They also suggested for re-establishing natural drainage systems, ensuring accountability and transparency of development works, increasing and introducing use of contemporary cutting edge technologies for managing drainage systems and generating awareness among dwellers against irresponsible dumping of waste into the drains. Those suggestions came from a human chain organised by Poribesh Bachao Andolan (POBA) along with other 17 other green activist organisations in front of the Mouchak market in the city yesterday morning.
Chairman of POBA Abu Naser Khan presided the programme while its General Secretary Engineer Md Abdus Sobhan, Co-Secretary MA Wahed, President of Nagorik Odhikar Songrokhon Forum Hafizur Rahman, President of Modern Club Abul Hasnat, Member-Secretary of Pollima Green Anisul Hossain Tareq, President of Bangladesh Safe Water Movement Engineer Md Anwar Hossain, Project Officer of WBB Trust Atiqur Rahman, General Secretary of Dhaka Metropolitan Dokan Malik Somity Ismail Hossain, among others, joined the programme.
Speaking on the occasion Abu Naser Khan asked the authorities for rehabilitation of the natural drainage systems to hold sustainability of the growth of developments.
“Canals and water reserves in and around Dhaka city have been grabbed and meaninglessly over dumped. Unplanned expansion of the mega city is not only destroying the natural water sources but also contaminating those to a dangerous level,” claimed Khan.
He suggested that appropriate measures had to be undertaken by the two city corporations – DSCC and DNCC –, and the Dhaka WASA for building sustainable drainage systems and manage those regularly to serve the dwellers a water logging free city life, especially during the rainy season.
“Dhaka city has 290 kilometers of drainage system with 10 box culverts for draining waste water but those are heavily dumped with around 3000 tonnes of uncollected waste by the corporations, thereby creating unbearable water logging problem in the city,” said Abdus Sobhan.
He added; “Construction of low quality drainage, lack of adequate monitoring and maintenance are reducing lifetime of those drainage lines. Unplanned urbanization, lack of awareness among dwellers and less cooperation by concerned authorities have foiled our drainage systems.”
Besides, other speakers laid emphasis on reshaping box-culverts of the city into natural canals, ensuring quality of drainage as well as infrastructural construction works.
They suggested that Dhaka WASA and the city corporations should undertake collective approach for implementation of the mega projects like the drainage mechanism for their sustainability. Authorities have to build the integrated drainage with proper height and width to meet the growing pressure of urbanization, they opined.
