Friday | 17 January 2025 | Reg No- 06
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Friday | 17 January 2025 | Epaper

Dhaka rivers, lives, and files

Published : Tuesday, 25 July, 2017 at 12:00 AM  Count : 250
Chinmay Prasun Biswas
Dhaka is the only capital city in the world which is surrounded by four rivers -- Buriganga, Turag, Shitalakhya,  Balu. And also at a short distance by two more rivers -- Dhaleswari and Bangshi. No other capital city in the world has such fortune. It is a rare blessing for us from nature, but this blessing has turned into a serious curse because of our sheer greed and negligence, these rivers are almost dead.  
Domestic, factory, tannery, clinic and hospital waste, garbage, filthy materials and heavy metals (both solid and liquid) are being continuously dumped into these rivers, making the water deadly for fish and other aquatic animals. They are very poisonous for water herbs and dangerous for normal day to day use, and also contaminated for bathing and washing.
Scientifically, it is established that water is a tasteless and colourless liquid substance and it has no smell. But for these rivers this basic scientific fact has turned into a farce because water of the Buriganga has developed a colour which is almost black. It is extremely stinky, and the taste is very foul. There are two bridges on the Buriganga at Postgola and Babubazar point. Thousands of buses, trucks and other small vehicles cross these two bridges with millions of passengers every day. Apart from it there are many boats and other water vessels plying on this river. Except rainy season, when the vehicles roll on these bridges, without looking downwards or sideways or even if eyes are closed, everybody feels that they are on the river because the stink of the river strikes their nose, notifying that they are crossing the river. The condition of other rivers is not much different.
With a population of more than 15 million Dhaka is a rapidly but haphazardly expanding city. For nearly one thousand years the Buriganga has been serving as lifeline of residents of Dhaka on both sides of the river: as a source of livelihood, means of transport, source of irrigation, washing, bathing and many other domestic and commercial purposes. But in return people are continuously polluting the river. Experts say that water of these rivers cannot be taken for drinking. It is not fit for bathing and washing even.  
According to the Environment Protection (Amendment) Act, 2010 minimum level of dissolved oxygen in water required for sustaining aquatic species (fishes and others) is 5mg per litre. Considering water fit for drinking, the level  is at least  6mg per litre  whereas a study conducted by Department of Environment  shows that during dry season this level goes down to 0.38mg per litre in  Buriganga, 0.59 in Turag and 0.0 in Bangshi which is not only alarming but beyond any possibility of recovery in near future.
In our school days we read that there is no fish in the river Jordan. Time has already come to us to add names of these rivers to that list. Experts add that unscrupulous dumping of industrial and human waste, continuous failure to control grabbing and encroachment has taken the rivers to ICU. Instead of serving as lifeblood these rivers are now on deathbeds. Sometimes eviction operation is conducted but within a short period grabbers come back with renewed vigour. Users, factory owners, government and people are collectively responsible for this plight of the rivers.
Some experts think that no government has given priority to this serious side but realising the gravity of the situation Honourable Prime Minister formed a high power 19 member committee in November 2016 under the leadership of Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, including one Director General of Prime Minister's office. The committee was supposed to meet every month and submit a plan but only one meeting was held so far.  Though no decision has been taken in eight months, it is known that preparation of a master plan is near to end and after approval of Honourable Prime Minister that project will start working.
Sources of Ministry of Water Transport and Shipping informs that to make the four rivers surrounding Dhaka pollution free, evict unauthorised grabbers on both sides,  erect planned walls  to protect  both banks and remove silt and increase natural flow of water a project was taken in June-July 2017.  Reform of the Karnaphuli was also included in that project which was sent to Prime Minister's office. It was decided to implement the project with the help of navy.
There are complains that navy high officials have delayed the project. It was initially decided that navy would work to bring the original look of these rivers in the model of the Thames, which was once polluted but later it was made pollution-free. It has been reported that the committee is thinking of doing the work with the help of Dhaka WASA but this organisation has no skill that the navy has. For such indecision, the project is trapped in files, making life of the rivers and people more uncertain.
About a decade ago, the government declared the Buriganga, Turag, Shitalaksha and Balu as Ecologically Critical Areas (ECA) under the ECA Act, 1999. The Environment Protection Act, 2010 has empowered the government to take every action to preserve any area declared as an Ecologically Critical Area. Very recently honourable Minister  for Environment and Forest repeated it in the parliament and declared that necessary steps had been taken to prevent pollution of these rivers, which includes plan to establish 10 economic zones having Effluent Treatment Plant so that industrial waste cannot pollute rivers.
Initiatives have been taken to implement zero tolerance towards industrial undertakings emitting liquid waste by 2030 and 14 projects costing Tk 1,443.8 million has been granted for forestation. But experts raise question that after declaring the rivers as ECA what has been done during these long 10 years. The year 2030 is long way ahead and they have every doubt regarding success of these initiatives if taken because damage has already been done to such a high degree that it is beyond recovery.
Environmentalists say that without compelling factory owners to establish effluent treatment plants (ETP) in their factories, pollution can never be controlled. But even the government owned factories do not have ETPs. Most of the factories in state-owned Export Processing Zone at Savar do not have ETPs and their wastes have been continuously damaging the river. Apart from it, prevention of hospital and other human dumping into water is also an emergency need.
In 2009 Honourable High Court ordered the government to take necessary steps to stop encroachment, earth-filling, and construction of illegal structures on the Buriganga, Turag, Balu and Sitalakkhya rivers and to evict the already built illegal structures. Certainly there was a file in this regard but nobody knows how much of those directions have been implemented.
In a TV report (Independent TV on 14 July, 2017), to the government, the industry owners of Shyampur have demanded for giving them space to establish ETPs under the supervision of WASA. But the managing director of Dhaka WASA has declined this demand, mentioning that factory owners have established factories and it is their responsibility to establish ETPs; it is not the duty of WASA.
In the same report Alamgir, Director, Department of Environment, mentioned that all these industries have been polluting the rivers since they started running their factories, which cannot be tolerated any more. This is a very good realisation, which could be said as synonymous to zero tolerance policy of the government. But the question is, when this realisation will come to reality? The phrase zero tolerance is frequently used but rarely practised -- critics say. Let us be hopeful that initiatives of the government will be materialised. Decisions would also come to light from their captivity in files, and the rivers would get their flow and life back.

The writer is a Commissioner of Taxes (Rtd)


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