Bangladesh: Canal grabbing threatens city sewer system

Dhaka, July 6, 2013 (New Age): Unplanned development and illegal construction encroaching on natural canals, flood-flow zones and low-lying areas in the city and on its outskirts have jeopardised Dhaka’s sewer system, causing water-logging during monsoon every year, urban experts have said. They told New Age that absence of a common city development control authority had caused a lack of coordination among the public utilities that resulted in the mismanagement in the city’s drainage system. According to them, Dhaka did not have a proper drainage and sewerage infrastructure. The city, moreover, is expanding both horizontally and vertically at an uncontrollable pace, along with its growing population. In comparison, the drainage and sewerage facilities made little improvement over the years. Encroachment on natural canals, including Katasur canal, Ramchandrapur canal, Segunbagicha canal, Jirani canal, Shahjahanpur canal, Mohakhali canal, Debdholai canal and Kalyanpur canal was a major reason for water-logging, they said. Some of them said the existing drainage facilities could not operate at full capacity because of poor maintenance. ‘The city’s drainage system has broken down with its natural canals, water retention zones and low-lying areas gobbled up by land developers,’ said Jamilur Reza Choudhury, former vice-chancellor of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. Urban expert professor Nazrul Islam, also the former chairman of University Grants Commission, said the problem of water-logging was rooted in the ad-hoc plans of the policymakers. ‘Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority or Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha or the city corporations do not have a long-term and coordinated plan to address the longstanding problem,’ he said. Had Dhaka city been developed in line with the Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan, it would not have encountered this problem, he noted. Nazrul said no plans were executed as those were taken on an ad-hoc basis. On the other hand, he said, the government had no control over the unauthorised and unplanned development occupying canals and water bodies in and around the city. Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon joint secretary Iqbal Habib, also an architect, said the entire sewer system had turned ineffective due to ‘mismanagement by WASA, RAJUK and city corporations.’ The WASA has converted all the canals under its jurisdiction into ‘box culverts’ worsening the situation. The experts said that a city government system should be in place to streamlines the development with a long-term plan for the fast-growing city of Dhaka. According to officials of the respective agencies, the two city corporations have 999.468 kilometres of open sewers and 1052.19 kilometres of storm sewer network while the Dhaka WASA has 240 kilometres of storm sewer lines, including eight kilometres of ‘box culverts’, but none of the agencies took special measures to address water-logging before the start of monsoon.