JS panel asks for freeing city’s canals, wetlands

A parliamentary standing committee asked the government on Thursday to free the city's canals, wetlands and surrounding rivers from illegal occupation.

The committee on environment and forest ministry also asked for freeing the water bodies from pollution.

At a public dialogue it held the committee made a nine-point recommendations including for zoning of land usage and setting up a new agency for the management and protection of water bodies to save the capital city's environment.

At the dialogue on 'saving the rivers and canals' at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban, the committee invited representatives of Dhaka WASA, Urban Development Directorate, select NGOs for giving their considered views on the issues.

The committee asked the government to protect the rivers around the capital city from encroachment.

It asked the government to declare 40 per cent land area of the city as 'drainage catchment area'.

The committee chairman Abdul Momin Talukder, MP, and Saber Hossain Chowdhury, MP, took the expert opinion of the officials as well as the NGO functionaries working on these issues.

Quoting a study report, Saber Hossain Chowdhury suggested the average speed of vehicles should be five kilometres an hour on 65 per cent of the city roads.

He requested the government to enact a 'clean water act.'

The committee recommended for giving importance to 'integrated solid waste management' for the capital city.

Committee chairman Abdul Momin Talukder described the current status of watershed of Dhaka city as 'dismal.'

He said that the high level of pollution in its surface water calls for immediate corrective action.

He said the city's wetlands and the rivers are dying posing a threat its flora and fauna.    

Dhaka WASA managing director Taqsem A Khan said that the city of Dhaka once crisscrossed by its canals and surrounded by rivers had an extraordinary advantage of natural drainage.

He said that the city now faces a disasters situation due to illegal occupation of the rivers and the canals and industrial pollution.

He said industrial wastes contribute 60 per cent pollution of the rivers surrounding the city.

He said that the city's sewer is illegally dumped into the rivers through WASA's rain water flushing pipes.

source:NewAge