Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
The work of “Hatirjheel Lake Water Treatment Project” will begin next month to remove the odour from the lake water.
“Installation of the treatment plant will begin after Eid-ul-Azha. Hopefully, the project will be completed by November this year,” an official involved with the project told The New Nation on Monday, on condition of anonymity.
He said the project would be implemented with the help of an Australian firm.
“Officials of the firm recently visited Dhaka to assess the overall condition of the lake water,” said the official, adding, “They will come again to observe the project work.”
Earlier, the authorities announced an integrated and sustainable remediation action plan to tackle water pollution in Hatirjheel Lake amid growing public irritation over the suffocating odour seeping from the lake water.
The project will be implemented at an estimated cost of Tk 50 crore, officials said.
Being the lead agency of the Integrated Development of Hatirjheel Area, including Begunbari Khal Project, the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK) prepared the plan in consultation with the Australian firm.
“Water pollution of Hatirjheel Lake has taken a serious turn raising environmental and health concern. Even, bad smell is coming from the contaminated water causing huge irritation to the local people. So, the authorities took up the project to purify the lake water,” a senior RAJUK official told The New Nation.
The authorities earlier conducted contamination assessment study in Bangladesh, Japan and Australia from water samples collected from various points of the lake.
Results of the tests were compared with the ‘recreational’ water as mentioned in the Bangladesh Environmental Conservation Rules-1997 and found that water pollution at Hatirjheel Lake has reached an ‘intolerable level,’ posing serious threat to Biolife and Environment.
When asked, the RAJUK official said, the noxious smells is seeping from the lake water due to contamination from garbage and solid waste dumped there without treatment.
“But the water pollution of the lake will be tackled completely once the project is implemented and thereby the water quality of the lake will become recreational,” he added.
According to the remediation action plan, high capacity compressor and diffuser will be installed in the lake bed to bring dissolving oxygen (DO) in water at tolerable level through continuous aeration. Besides, coagulant and flocculant will be sprayed as quick sediments to clear water.
At the same time, quality of water will be improved through biological treatment and a sediment basin will be created at the Special Sewer Diversion Structure (SSDS)-1 (behind Hotel Sonargaon) to protect the lake from contamination of sledges heading the lake from Panthapath box culvert.
Hatirjheel Lake was created as a stormwater retention basin. But solid waste and garbage are falling into the lake most of the times in absence of a separate storm, and sanitary and sewage line in the catchments areas contaminating water of the lake. Even industrial wastage is also mixing up with in water from the catchments areas.
The human and solid waste are also being mixed up in the lake water as the overflow control gate of the SSDS is opening up during rainy season to protect the catchments areas from water logging.
