The Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) has started excavating a water retention canal from Ashkona to Kha Para near Khilkhet with a view to resolving city’s waterlogging problem.
When the excavation of the canal is completed, the obstruction of water flow in different places of the 1.8 km long canal will be removed and the waterlogging of Kasaibari, Ashkona, Kaila, Banarupa Housing areas will be removed to a large extent.
DNCC Mayor Md Atiqul Islam inaugurated the excavation of AD-8 canal, which belongs to the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB), at 12 noon on Saturday.
“When it rains, water logging is taking place in front of Ashkona, Prembagan and Hajj camp. The people of the area are blaming us for this. This part of Dhaka is totally unplanned.
Housing companies have built different buildings, but, they did not work to drain the water. They did not think of ways to alleviate the suffering of the people,” the mayor said while inaugurating the canal excavation.
The mayor said, “This canal belongs to civil aviation. We have repeatedly requested the Civil Aviation to dig this 1.8 km canal. They say we can’t do it, you do it.”
“The place belongs to Civil Aviation, the canal belongs to Civil Aviation, but the City Corporation has to work,” he sadly wondered.
Atiqul further said, “Due to improper cleaning of WASA drain, waterlogging is taking place in Sasatbari, Madhubagh area of Magbazar whenever it rains. But the people are repeatedly blaming the city corporation.”
Addressing WASA and Civil Aviation, he said, “You take responsibility, or give us funds, we want to work. The revenue collection of the city corporation has been stopped for the last three months. It takes a lot of money to do such work. Even then we didn’t wait. We have started digging this canal with everything we have.”
The mayor urged the civil aviation and WASA to fulfill their respective responsibilities.
Earlier on Thursday, Atiqul Islam visited the area and declared to connect the retention canal with the AD-8 canal project at Kha Para. The estimated cost of the project is Tk 15-million.
Being implemented by Bangladesh Army, the canal is meant to drain out storm water of Nikunja, Cantonment and Airport areas into the Baluriver.
In March 2019, he initiated to free Ashkona, Uttarkhan and Dakkhinkhan of permanent waterlogging, caused mainly by landfill and sludge, through a retention canal.
Multiple housing companies and local individuals are responsible for such environmentally disastrous activities.
But neither CAAB nor Dhaka WASA executed the decision to excavate the retention canal, thus putting the local residents in peril for the past 15 months.
DNCC chief engineer Brig Gen Amirul Islam said there is no drainage system in Ashkona, Uttarkhan and Dakkhinkhan areas.
Floodplains have been filled up by Ashiyan City and others hindering natural flow of sewerage, storm water and kitchen water up to the Balu.
Amirul Islam said, “We have to excavate 485 metres and remove 27,000 cubic metres of soil. We need to clean sludge of the rest bypassing the civil aviation graveyard.”
Ward Councilor Anisur Rahman Naeem and DM Shamim, among others, were present during the inauguration of the canal excavation.