Bangladesh News

While political leaders, academicians, eminent citizens, professional groups and the common people are demanding urgent measures to save our rivers, the government is sitting on two projects — demarcation of all the four rivers and a four-lane bypass highway around the city — which would ensure water flow, if implemented.

The Dhaka Integrated Flood Control Embankment-Eastern Bypass Road Multipurpose Project, widely known as bypass project, and the Rehabilitation of the Buriganga-Turag-Shitalakhya River System and Augmentation of Dry Season Flow are the two mega projects lying idle now due to lack of funds.

According to Water Development Board (WDB), the initiator of both the projects, the estimated cost of the eastern bypass project is Tk 2,475 crore while the second project’s cost stands at around Tk 630 crore.

According to experts at the WDB and the Institute of Water Modelling (IWM) the cost of the two projects combined would be the highest ever but the concepts are indispensable for the river system and road communication around the city.

Experts at the WDB and Institute of Water Modelling (IWM) said the project for augmenting flow in the four rivers is vital to keep the rivers protected and free from pollution round the year.

They, however, insisted on installing Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) in the polluting industries simultaneously.

The IWM, in April 2003, conducted a feasibility study to explore ways to rehabilitate the Buriganga-Turag-Shitalakhya river system and ensure their dry-season flow. The IWM, during its study, found out the Turag-Buriganga-Balu-Shitalakhya river system receives flood-season water flow mainly from the Jamuna through the Ghior Khal in Manikganj, the Pungli in Tangail and the Old Brahmaputra in Sirajganj.

But during the lean period between October and May the links with the Jamuna become completely cut off causing stagnation in the city river system.

The IWM in its report envisaged a project to connect the Dhaka river system with the Jamuna through the Pungli, which travels 180 kilometres to meet the capital.

IWM’s Principal Specialist and Head of Water Resources Planning Division SM Mahbubur Rahman said the idea was to keep the mouth of the Pungli open round the year and divert a minimum of 245 cubic meters of water per second from the Jamuna into the city’s river system. This would maintain the flow of water during dry season automatically flushing out pollutants.

Once the water flow is maintained it will ensure good water quality and also help improve navigation, irrigation, and economic and social conditions, he added.

Experts believe that diverting the water would not affect the environment as over 2000 cubic metres of water flows through the Jamuna per second at any time of the lean period.

The project proposal is gathering dust at the Planning Commission awaiting donors’ financial assistance.

The bypass project, which was okayed by the ECNEC in 1998, envisages building a 30-Kilometer-long dyke-cum-bypass road along the Turag and the Balu on the eastern fringe which encompasses124 square kilometres of fast-growing urban areas between Tongi Railway Bridge and Kanchpur Bridge.

Seven ministries with the water resources ministry in the lead would implement the project. An inter-ministerial meeting in July 2004 classified the project as the second most important one in terms of national priority to reduce poverty. The project would protect this vast area from recurring floods and also expand the city.

It would also play a vital role in diverting east and southbound traffic from northern parts of the country.

WDB Chief Engineer of Central Zone Md Humayun Kabir said the work on the bypass project began with the help of the Engineering Corps of the Bangladesh Armed Forces in 1998. The concept was to build the embankment by dredging the river.

“But the project was abandoned when we found out the bed of the river Balu was filled with sludge and sand that was totally unsuitable for building the base of a road to be used by heavy goods-carrying vehicles,” Kabir said.

Although the bypass project does not directly interfere with the rivers, it draws a clear demarcation line and also helps the rivers get back their navigability, he added.

“The project has to be incorporated into the Annual Development Programme to restart it,” the chief engineer said.

Although the WDB has once again updated the eastern bypass project and sent it to the water resources ministry for further considerations, experts, given the urgency to save the rivers, believe it should be revised and implemented in several phases so that the government can easily afford the cost.

“The sheer costs of these projects are staggering, so we have to find out a way to slash costs and make them affordable,” said an engineer of the WDB seeking anonymity.