Housing projects occupy half of Dhaka wetlands'

Over half of the wetlands in Dhaka is currently occupied by several housing projects, said human and environment rights activists at a programme on Sunday.

They called on authorities concerned to protect natural water bodies other than creating project base water reservoirs.

They made the call during a seminar on ‘Preventive measures to protect agro, nature, wetlands and river encroachment’ organised by Association for Land Reform and Development (ALRD) on the occasion of celebrating World Wetlands Day 2023 in the city on Sunday morning.

Discussing the imbalanced development of the capital, Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (Bela) Chief Executive Syeda Rizwana Hasan said housing projects are responsible for the loss of 57 per cent of Dhaka’s wetlands.

In different parts of the country, the vulnerability of the administration has become visible through incidents of encroachment of rivers or wetlands, environment pollution, sand and stone extraction.

“Balanced development is not possible by destroying what we cannot create,” she opined.

Rokon, secretary general of Riverine People and Sanzida Khan Ripa, manager (Program) of ALRD presented the two keynote papers at the programme.

Speaking as the chief guest at the programme, former chairman of River Conservation Commission Muzibur Rahman Howlader said, “We have problems in coordination and transparency. Stopping river flow is a criminal offence. In terms of river-wetland-reservoir protection, it is possible to rescue the river-reservoir by identifying those culprits using GIS, GPS.”