With the onset of winter, the five rivers surrounding the capital Dhaka are now so polluted that their waters have appeared pitch black, emitting foul stench round the clock. The five rivers - Buriganga, Shitalakshya, Balu, Turag and Dhaleshwari - and several canals encircling the Dhaka city have not been freed from pollution and illegal encroachment yet. Thirteen years back, the government had taken the Buriganga River Restoration Project to revive the Buriganga and other rivers surrounding the capital city and bring back their lost glory.
So, the rotten stench originating from the polluted waters of Buriganga, Dhaleswari, Pungli, Bangshi and Turag starts spreading in and around the rivers’ bank soon after the disappearance of monsoon as their waters quality starts deteriorating seriously.
Capital Dhaka has already completed its four hundred years and its civilisations developed along the Buriganga and other rivers banks. These rivers especially Buriganga always work as the lifeline of the capital Dhaka.
In his budget speech this year Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said the government would design an umbrella investment programme to make the five rivers surrounding the Dhaka city pollution-free aiming at turning the capital into a livable one. But the government has yet to implement the project titled ‘Buriganga River Restoration Project, encompassing New Dhaleswari-Pungli-Bangshi-Turag-Buriganga river system.’ A painful lack of rain, unabated grabbing and relentless heat waves during summer are drying up rivers surrounding the city. They are shrinking in length and breadth.
These rivers
especially Buriganga always
work as the lifeline of the capital Dhaka
On the other hand, all waste of the sewerage lines also goes to the rivers resulting in increasing pollution. So, the waters of rivers are rotting, spreading bad smells all the time. While speaking at a meeting on the presentation of the survey report and the policy decision for the adoption of the related project in the light of the master plan designed to prevent pollution and protect the navigability of the rivers around Dhaka Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday said it is very much painful that bad smell comes from the Buriganga River due to pollution.
She also opted to set up small treatment plants in different parts of Dhaka city to save the rivers around the capital. Whatever we do, we have to keep in mind first the waste management.
We all must express our firm determination to take united efforts to save these rivers at any cost. Besides, environmentalists, rights activists, public representatives, political leaders and government officials also have to take a fresh oath to save our rivers from pollution and grabbing.
The government took various measures to free the Buriganga from illegal occupation and pollution while river conservationists, environmentalists and rights activists continued talking about the issue. But the Buriganga, Shitalakshya, Balu, Turag and Dhaleshwari are still being polluted with household sewage and industrial wastes while grabbing is taking place under the very nose of the authorities concerned. Illegal establishments built on the bank of rivers were demolished in several times.
But, showing thumb to the concerned authorities, the local influential again grabbed the river banks in many ways. So, such unabated pollution and grabbing has posed a serious challenge to keep alive these rivers. These rivers have not yet died but if the pollution and grabbing continue, once they will be disappearing from the map of the country.
