Saving Dhaka’s rivers

Once profusely flowing, the four rivers surrounding Dhaka –Buriganga, Turag, Shitalakshya, and Balu –have been seriously harmed due to the mindless encroachment by vested quarters. Not only in the capital but many free-flowing rivers have also become a series of stagnant water bodies.

Despite directives from the country’s highest court to save rivers, pollution and encroachment of rivers surrounding Dhaka continue unabated due to authorities’ inaction against polluters and failure of Dhaka WASA to manage the waste. Dr Manjur Ahmed, chairman of National River Conservation Commission (NRCC), came up with the remarks in an interview with a local news agency.

However, we believe while WASA cannot deny its responsibility a deeper malaise afflicts the four rivers surrounding Dhaka.

Steps to stop the encroachment, grabbing, and abuse of our rivers can and should start now. Immediate conservation efforts including registering all the rivers crisscrossing the country are very crucial as some rivers are vanishing from the map. On many occasions, the government took up dredging projects to regain navigability of the rivers drying up. The move was aimed at removing faulty stretches of roads, dams, privately built structures disturbing the natural flow of the rivers. Unfortunately, most of the initiatives ended in failure.

Environmentalists have been emphasising for long that the rivers in and around the city have to be saved from encroachment and pollution. These rivers have been the targets of land grabbers having enough political influence and money to run their nefarious activities. Experts, time and again have alerted us to the grave danger of allowing these rivers to die due to pollution and the pressure of encroachment. The decision makers have apparently been convinced by the arguments of the environmentalists, and attempts to evict the encroachers have been made from time to time. However soon things got back to square one.

Rivers follow the rules of nature. If the width of a river is reduced by encroachment, it may have an impact on the discharge it normally carries; natural volume of flow may reduce; as a response, the depth of the river lessens, thus permanently shrinking the river in terms of size and flow volume. According to statistics, the country had about 700 rivers four decades ago but today only about 400 exist. At the time of the country’s liberation the total length of rivers and water bodies was 24,000 kilometers which now has reduced to little more than 3,000 kilometres.

It must be admitted that until now, we have not done a very good job of protecting our rivers from encroachment and illegal grabbing. Way back 2009, the National River Protection Commission (NRPC) was formed in the light of a High Court verdict, but while the commission was empowered to dispense petitions to protect rivers, it lacked the authority to take action against illegal river grabbers. As a result, river encroachment continues unabated. A blatant disregard for the laws in place is what has caused the situation to reach such a sorry state. It nothing short of a tragedy that so much encroachment has happened in the recent years. Many of Bangladesh’s rivers appear beyond saving, and this is taking a major toll on our environment, on aquatic life, and on various industries.

Saving the rivers is no easy task. As stated earlier in most cases, encroachers and polluters are politically and financially influential. An uphill battle against them can only be won if there is strong political commitment and social movement to save our rivers. Also, there is a need for ensuring better coordination among different government agencies. The BIWTA is entrusted with the task of tackling illegal grabbing, while the owner of the river water is the water resources ministry and the riverbanks are owned by the shipping ministry and the environment ministry is entrusted with the task of checking water pollution.  Ironically ever after having so many bodies too look after them the condition of the rivers continues to deteriorate.