Bangladesh News

The government is facing difficulties in recovering the city’s canals and water bodies encroached upon by real estate companies and individuals who, the LGRD and cooperatives minister yesterday said, are “highly influential and financially powerful”.

He said it is even difficult to fight these quarters legally.

However, despite all these obstacles the government has taken up various measures to recover the canals and water bodies in and around Dhaka city, Syed Ashraful Islam said during the question-answer session in the House.

The government has also planned to treat the water of the Meghna for supplying within the city, he added.

Lawmakers had expressed serious concern over the current situation of the water bodies in the capital and asked the government to take stern actions against grabbers to save the city.

“Different developers are filling up water bodies in different parts of the city…All natural ways for water flow in the city have been grabbed,” said Ashraf. “We are trying our best to address the problem.”

He informed the House that the government wants to dig a canal in the Airport Road area to ensure water flow from Mirpur and Mohammadpur areas in particular.

“The prime minister has asked me to talk with landowners in these areas about land acquisition at a price more than what is shown in registration papers,” he said.

In its efforts to recover 43 city canals from grabbers, the parliamentary standing committee on land ministry asked the authority concerned a few months ago to prepare a list of the grabbed canals and grabbers within a month.

But the authority failed and said it was facing difficulties in identifying the locations of the canals as many structures like offices and educational institutions have been built by filling up the canals.

The committee then asked it to use modern technology for the task and gave it another month’s time.

Citing his first hand experience during a recent visit to Rupganj of Narayanganj, the LGRD minister said housing companies and individuals have illegally filled up most water bodies there.

He said these developers have thousands of crores of taka and are very much influential.

“A disaster is nearing as there is no scope left for water to flow in and out of the city causing severe water logging,” Ashraf said. “We must protect Dhaka by saving its water bodies, otherwise people will have to leave the capital.”

The minister, however, gave worried lawmakers assurance that the government has taken up massive plans to resolve water logging in the city while his ministry has taken measures to avert use of underground water as the water level is decreasing alarmingly.

“A time may come when there will be no groundwater available in Dhaka to drink. So, we have planned to treat water of the Meghna and supply it to city dwellers,” Ashraf said, adding that Dhaka Wasa has initiated different measures to keep water of the rivers around the city free from pollution.

He said the government has taken up three water treatment projects at Pagla of Keraniganj, Sayedabad and Khilkhet to increase usage of surface water by 50 percent from the current 13 percent within five years.

Ashraf informed the House that at present the usage of groundwater is 87 percent in the city.

He said the daily demand of water in the capital is 210 crore litres while the Wasa can supply 195 crore litres.

Measures will be taken to ensure usage of surface water in the cities of Rajshahi, Sylhet and Barisal also, he added.