LACK of coordination between utility service providers, coupled with inadequate precautionary measures during the digging of roads for the installation of pipelines and their poor maintenance, increases the risk of accidents, say Urban Planning experts.
The issue has drawn fresh attention after Friday’s fire at a six-storey building in the capital’s Banani, injuring 25 people. Residents of the building and the Fire Service men who put out the blaze said the fire had resulted from a gas pipe leak. In many cases, it is seen that while digging, the utilities cut open emergency lines like gas pipelines and electricity lines. But they avoid taking responsibility for the problems, nor do they bother to undo the damage, Experts say.
The residents of the Banani building put the blame on the Titas Gas authorities, as they did not take immediate steps to repair the leaked pipe despite complaints from a contractor of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and the building’s inhabitants. Urban Planning experts suggested bringing all the 54 government organisations responsible for utility services and the city’s management under one umbrella for better coordination between them.
If all these are brought under two Dhaka City Corporations, the chances of accidents will be reduced by 80 to 90 percent. But the Mayors of Dhaka do not have power over vital organisations like Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA), Titas, Dhaka Power Distribution Company Ltd (DPDC) and Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK). The DNCC was digging at a spot close to the Banani building without any coordination between Titas Gas and it. Titas Gas does not even have layouts of age-old pipelines and so it lacks data about their present status.
Utility service providers should take safety measures before digging, as otherwise there would be chances of damaging emergency pipelines. Consumers can help turning off both front and back keys of gas burners and keeping windows of kitchens open even at night. During the construction of a building, kitchens should be built against the exterior wall so that leaked gas can easily pass out. Pipelines in a building should be installed in a way that all of them can be disconnected with a key when an accident occurs. These are all commonsense policies which should minimize but not avoid, accidents.
It is quite simple to give the power to the Mayors to ensure better co-ordination of services — after all in most cities of the world Mayors already have the power — but why not in Dhaka, then? The answer must lie somewhere between the jealousy by which bureaucratic structures guard their authority and power and the sheer negligence of the authorities concerned to amalgamate the powers into one body. But it is precisely this reluctance which has caused this accident — and perhaps further accidents in the future.
Digging roads without a proper blueprint of critical utility lines smacks of downright callousness in the part of our public officials — this nonchalant attitude towards providing service must go, for the greater interests of the nation.
