Star has published ten reports on Dhaka city's canals between July 21 and September 29 revealing how these water bodies were destroyed, occupied or threatened due to unabated encroachment, dumping of waste and sheer negligence. But many are still salvageable. As the city is already plagued by waterlogging, we must preserve what remains and build new ones. Today our final report of the series testifies how steps need to be taken to protect these canals. The city dwellers hope that the authorities concerned, including Wasa, Water Development Board, Rajuk and the two city corporations, to build a better Dhaka, will recover the canals and protect those surviving.
Waterlogging problem in the capital will be solved by making both the canals and drainage facilities (storm water and surface drains) functional and properly protecting the water bodies and flood flow zones, experts suggested.
They also recommended increasing canals' width and acquiring land as per practicable and protecting the downstream drainage system.
“Storm water drains are designed for capturing storm runoff from paved surfaces and conveying them to canals and rivers. But the drains are mostly occupied by domestic sewage flow, accumulated sludge and solid waste. There is little to no space for storm water to enter the system,” said Prof Mujibur Rahman of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) in a presentation last year.
Mujibur suggested protecting downstream drainage canals and enhancing their capacity and increasing width.
Widening and raising canal banks (2-3 metres), and acquiring approximately 20‐30 metre area along both sides of canals immediately to construct walkways, greenbelts, tree plantation and local roads are a must, he stressed.
Unless existing wetlands and water bodies are protected, the drainage system of eastern Dhaka will collapse and many of its areas will be inundated, said Mujibur.
He said existing wetlands and water bodies must be delineated and protected under the purview of Wetland Conservation ACT 2000.
Designated wetlands including reserved ponds must be declared as Ecologically Critical Area (ECA) through a gazette notification by the environment and forests ministry, he added.
Mujibur also suggested acquiring the areas earmarked for reserved ponds, protecting from being filled up and making them available as water parks.
Architect Iqbal Habib, joint secretary of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (Bapa), said canals are not the element of the drainage system separately, because a loop closing system was made under a plan incorporating the canals, bill, jheel and retention ponds.
One of the main benefits of a canal is to contain rainwater for keeping the city dry, he said, adding, “We also could develop waterways system under the loop network.”
Iqbal said, “The present concept of protecting canals through slope is a wrong idea; rather two sides of the canals can be protected through a vertical micro pile, which will increase the water containing capacity as canals' width will be increased and at a time walkway will also be constructed to protect those from encroachment.”
There is a huge lacking in coordination between Wasa and the city corporations though 60 percent ownership of the drainage system belongs to Wasa and the rest 40 percent to the city corporations.
“We suggest handing over the entire drainage system to the two city corporations,” he said.
Iqbal said there is a scope to build five __more projects like Hatirjheel using different water bodies and retention pond areas, which include Kalyanpur retention pond area of Wasa, an area centring Dholaikhal, an area in Rayerbazar and a water body in between Uttar and Dakkhin Khan.
The government should take steps to recover the lands immediately to reduce the waterlogging problem, he said.
“We held a meeting with 26 organisations and asked the DC office to identify all the canals and ways to recover them and submit a report within 15 days,” said DSCC Mayor Sayeed Khokon.
He said they also asked Wasa to clean all the canals and drains to reduce the capital's waterlogging problem. Kathalbagan, Shantinagar and Rajarbagh are known for serious waterlogging for 10 to 12 hours after an hour of normal monsoon rain, he said.
Khokon said he promised to resolve half of the problem and they have cleaned drains in Shantinagar and Razarbagh while Wasa is setting up a pump in Kamalapur, which will also help mitigate the crisis.
“Waterlogging in Kathalbagan is caused by the water flow control in Hatirjheel development project. So it is a manmade problem,” he said.
Architect Salma A Shafi, joint secretary of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon, said all the canal banks will have to be opened, removing encroachers and keeping their natural flow intact.
“Wasa does some protection work but they do not get local councillors or community leaders involved. So the canals get encroached again,” she said.
She said the canals will have to come under excavation and setting up pillars and walkways is necessary to protect them.
“Maintenance and management is a long-time process, which remains absent in the work done in the country,” she said.
Managing Director of Wasa Taqsem A Khan said there are five organisations which are involved in maintaining the drainage system of the city -- Wasa, Dhaka South City Corporation, Dhaka North City Corporation, Water Development Board (WDB) and Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk).
He said 22 percent of storm drainage in the city belonged to Wasa, and the rest of the portions are maintained by the two city corporations and WDB.
Among the existing 26 canals in the city, Taqsem said 24 canals are maintained by Wasa and two by WDB.
“We have prepared a drainage master plan and handed it over to the city corporations and are implementing our portion of the plan and hope that the city corporations will implement it in the future,” he said.
“In our drainage master plan we have suggested giving the full management to one hand, so it is necessary to bring the entire management under the two city corporations. We hope to gradually hand over our portions to the city corporations also,” Taqsem added.
Waterlogging is being created for lack of water body, said Taqsem, suggesting the necessity of cleaning storm water drains, surface drains and canals.
The number of ponds in the city is very few and if ponds would be available then it would preserve rain water as a pond is also a retention area, he said. “We have to create __more water retention areas,” he suggested.
Taqsem said, “We have already started cleaning the canals to increase its navigability and also trying to clean the box culverts properly by using advanced cleaning equipment.”
Taqsem said Wasa and city corporations clean their own drains though it is a huge challenge as many people dump solid waste into the water bodies, storm water drains and canals due to a lack of proper solid waste management system.
People also consider the places as their dumping areas, he said, adding, those who do construction work also dump their construction waste blocking the drainage channel.
He said they are trying to keep the canals as navigable as possible. Contacted, DNCC Mayor Annisul Huq said, “We will maintain the canals and drainage channels and are ready to take the responsibility once we have complete authority over Wasa's drainage department.” This year the waterlogging problem of the city was comparatively less as some work regarding the waterlogging issues was done by the authority concerned due to their pressure, he said.
Responding about recovering the canals properly, Annis said they do not have any power in this regard; only they can put pressure on the authority concerned to recover the canals.
He said, “We will again start pressuring Wasa and the DC office to start working to reduce waterlogging from October and will start monitoring from November so that they can finish it by January.”
“For proper drainage of the city, there is no alternative to restoration of the canals, which unfortunately mostly exist in records. If there is a commitment, restoration is possible. Hatirjheel is a glaring example of the value of restoration,” said Syeda Rizwana Hasan, chief executive of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (Bela).
She said the government should follow the CS maps and bring back the water lines on a priority basis. “With strong political commitments, at least half of the canals can be freed from encroachments and thoughtless development work.”
“The land grabbers cannot be more powerful than the government. It is not only restoration, but also for the sake of a permanent protection, the encroachers should be sternly dealt with so that common people regain faith in the effectiveness of wetland related laws,” she stressed.