Call for saving hills

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Hillside settlements in Chittagong have to be protected from recurrent landslides through immediate implementation of the protective measures recommended by experts at different times, speakers at a roundtable in the port city yesterday said.

They said a legal structure and planning policy are needed for proper management of the hills and called for assigning a body to take care of their implementation.

The Daily Star Chittagong office organised the discussion on Challenges of Development: Hill-Cutting and Landslide, at the Institution of Engineers Bangladesh (IEB), Chittagong.

Engineers, architects, academics, government officials, journalists and NGO representatives took part in the discussion, moderated by The Daily Star Editor Mahfuz Anam.

The speakers said stopping hill-cutting and preventing killer landslides are the two major development challenges for Chittagong and called for political commitment, proper enforcement of the law and good governance in this regard.

Large-scale levelling of hills, mostly for economic gains and unplanned housing, cause mudslides which claimed more than 200 lives in Chittagong in the last one decade, said Prof M Shahidul Islam of geography and environment department at Jagannath University.

The city has witnessed the disappearance of over 100 hills since the liberation war, he said in his keynote paper.

As an immediate solution, he called for stopping hill-cutting and housing in the hills. He said risky hills need to be identified and vulnerable settlements relocated.

He espoused afforestation of barren hills and relocation of brick kilns as mid-term measures to stop landslides and said no high-rise building should get clearance in the hill areas.

Stressing the need for the development planners to take note of the city’s contour lines, he said a long-term solution should take in integrated hill management policy and implementation of integrated land use.

Prof M Shahidul said a report of the Hill Management Committee, formed by the Cabinet Division, lays out the proper management of hills. If the report’s recommendations are implemented, deaths from mudslides could be prevented, he said.

Engineer Ali Ashraf, chairman of IEB, Chittagong, said area specific land-use plans, which would include landscape-planning component and take conservation issues into account, is needed for important hill areas in Chittagong.

Architect and town planner Zarina Hossain spoke for forming a powerful town and country planning authority. She said planners should be consulted before leasing out any land.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) Zafar Alam said the government suspended leasing out hill lands in 1994.

He said they are working to stop landslides by slanting the hillsides and protecting the hills through geo-technical methods like tree plantation, anchoring and nailing instead of constructing costly retaining walls.

Former Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) chief engineer Zia Hussain called for expanding the city limits in order to reduce the density of city population. If urban facilities could be expanded, then people would not be forced to live beside hillside near their workplace, he said.

CDA town planner Shahinul Islam Khan said the authorities should clearly define the jurisdiction of town planners.

He said the CDA proposed including planning parameters in the Building Code (BC) to check unplanned development.

The last draft BC, he said, proposed formation of committees taking members from the civil society and the authorities concerned to approve development plan in hill areas.

AM Ziauddin Khan, deputy managing director for AK Khan Group, stressed coordination among development authorities.

Echoing Ziauddin, BGMEA vice president MA Salam called on the affluent to help proper management of hills and bring the families living beside hillsides out of danger.

The Daily Star Editor Mahfuz Anam said political will coupled with commitment on the part of the people and different professional bodies is needed for hill management.

The combine could put pressure for immediate implementation of the protective measures to save the hills and prevent deaths from landslides, he observed.

He said the media could help create awareness and commitment among all in this regard.

Social scientist and vice chancellor of Premier University Prof Dr Anupam Sen, Daily Bhorer Kagoj Editor Shyamal Dutta, Prof Abdul Haque of Chittagong University, Prof AQM Mahbub and Prof Nurul Islam Nazem of Dhaka University, city editor at regional daily Suprabhat Bangladesh M Nasirul Haque, Bhorer Kagoj Chittagong in-charge Omar Kaiser, Chittagong City Corporation ward councillor F Kabir Chowdhury Manik, general secretary for Chaktai Canal Excavation Action Committee Shahriar Khaled and Community Development Centre (Codec) deputy executive director Kamal Sengupta, YPSA programme manager Md Masud Rana, Jano Udyog coordinator Sharif Chouhan and advocate Salahuddin Haider Siddiqui were present.

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