A press conference on 'canal re-excavation' by the Bangladesh Institute of Planners (BIP) on Saturday noted that treating the ongoing canal re-excavation programme only as an earth-cutting project will fail to deliver long-term, sustainable, and ecological benefits.
BIP, a professional body concerning climate and ecology, at the press conference emphasized that to achieve the true environmental restoration, canal recovery must be deeply integrated with national wetland planning, comprehensive spatial planning, climate adaptation strategies, solid waste management, and active community participation.
These observations were shared at the press conference "Canal Re-excavation Program: Perspectives on Water Management, Climate Adaptation, and Spatial Planning," held at the BIP conference room in the capital's Banglamotor.
BIP's President Planner Dr. Muhammad Ariful Islam presented the keynote paper at the conference, moderated by its General Secretary Prof. Dr. M. Mosleh Uddin Hasan. Vice-President Sheikh Mehedi Ahsan also addressed the media.
In his keynote, Dr. Islam highlighted that decades of unplanned urbanization, unabated canal encroachment, and the filling of water bodies have transformed urban water management into a critical spatial planning crisis.
Referencing recent researches, he revealed an alarming statistic: Dhaka lost approximately 69 per cent of its wetlands between 1990 and 2020. Consequently, the city's surface temperature surged by 3.44°C to 9.35°C.
He further noted that despite the re-excavation of 26 canals in Dhaka, severe waterlogging persists due to improper channelling and the destruction of natural drainage networks.
Welcoming the government's canal-digging initiatives, Vice-President Sheikh Mehedi Ahsan urged immediate institutional reforms. He pointed out that involving seven to eight different ministries without a modernised, unified framework would inevitably lead to administrative bottlenecks and long-term disappointment. Furthermore, he emphasized that local efforts must consider upstream water withdrawals and global climate shifts that cause canals to dry up.
Addressing maintenance challenges, Prof. Dr. M. Mosleh Uddin Hasan cautioned that newly excavated canals, particularly in the southern coastal regions, often fill with silt within mere weeks. He advocated for continuous, scientific maintenance to sustain the benefits. The press conference also shed light on the groundwater depletion in the drought-prone Barind tract, suggesting that re-excavated canals could facilitate vital and sustainable groundwater recharge.
