Save river vow awaits result
So far so good in taking on climate change

Pinaki Roy

The High Court played a significant role in the move to recover rivers encroached upon by individuals and vested quarters over the years. Photo: Shafiqul Alam

The year 2009 saw a national consensus spearheaded by the prime minister herself on how to save the rivers encompassing Dhaka.

The reality, however, presents a different tale as river grabbing and pollution go on with very little resistance from the authorities concerned.

A recent report of Gazipur administration says that encroachment, earth filling and building of illegal structures at different points of Buriganga, Turag, and Balu rivers are going on unabated defying the High Court (HC) directives.

In the beginning of 2009, river encroachment and construction of unauthorised structures on the rivers were declared illegal in an HC verdict.

But still there is light at the end of the tunnel as the HC also joined the battle over the issue of saving rivers.

The administration is learnt to have almost completed some vital work required for a successful drive to end river encroachment and pollution.

The authorities said they would start removing polythene from the riverbed of the Buriganga in January 2010 and then they would go for dredging the country's all major rivers in phases.

After the massive media campaign in the first quarter of last year the prime minister took a personal interest in saving the rivers around the capital as well as across the country.

The media, especially The Daily Star, turned the spotlight on river pollution and river grabbing with a series of reports that drew huge attention of people. Then The Daily Star and private television Channel i jointly launched a campaign called 'Save River, Save Dhaka.'

Other newspapers and television channels also responded positively and picked up the issue.

Immediately after the HC asked the government to free the rivers from the grabbers Hasina asked a cabinet meeting to take necessary actions against the encroachers.

On another occasion in August 2009 while chairing a high-powered committee on river dredging Hasina directed the authorities concerned to immediately take up a complete action plan for dredging the country's silted-up rivers.

For the first time in the history of Bangladesh, industrialists at different meetings with the government and at different seminars vowed not to pollute the rivers if the government helped them with loan and building central Effluent Treatment Plants (ETP).

The government has undertaken a mega project of Tk 1,000 crore to dredge the rivers to restore their navigability. The purchase committee approved a proposal of importing dozens of dredgers for the purpose.

Recently the authorities in four districts -- Dhaka, Narayanganj, Munshiganj and Gazipur have submitted their reports on river grabbing following an HC order.

The reports say that villages, schools and even towns have grown in the areas that were once parts of the rivers as shown in the Cadastral Survey (CS) of 1913 which makes it practically very difficult to recover the land at present.

All the four districts are now waiting for the court's directives regarding the next course of action.

The Dhaka deputy commissioner (DC) in his report identified 4,021 encroachers, the Munshiganj DC identified 1,144 while the Gazipur DC mentioned only seven encroachers.

The report submitted by Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authorities (BIWTA) chairman stated that BIWTA authorities had demolished 3,127 illegal structures and removed sand and soil from four spots on the banks of Buriganga and Turag since 2001.

The grabbers belong to both public and private sectors and many of them could evade eviction drive as they managed to obtain HC stay orders in their favour, the report said.