Protectors are the predators

Grabbing gets encouraged by govt agencies, PM's concern alone hardly matters

Pinaki Roy

Hundreds of individuals and private enterprises are grabbing rivers and canals around the capital amid allegations that these illegal activities are being helped or encouraged by several government organisations.

In recent past, a number of government agencies were directly involved in earth filling, while some others helped grabbers do the same in an "official" way. As a result, the government's much-hyped river-saving initiatives failed to yield any positive result.

"None of the government agencies obeys our environmental rules. They just act as per their will without giving importance to the environment," said Dr Abdul Matin, secretary general of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan.

"Our prime minister is very aware of the state of the environment. But the government officials do not follow her directions. I think the officials need some tuning regarding environment," he added.

There are many instances of filling up water bodies by the government organisations like Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk), different law-enforcement agencies, and Dhaka City Corporation (DCC).

Evidence of encroachment of the rivers is found along the same alignment of the BIWTA landing station pontoons. The scenario is same at Sadarghat, Kholmora, Jhauchar, Sinnirtek, Shyampur, Gabtali and Narayanganj.

Earlier, the BIWTA, the custodian of rivers and ports, itself filled up a portion of the riverbed on the western side of the Buriganga-1 Bridge to set up a toll collection centre.

The Ministry of Land and district land offices have allegedly legalised grabbers' activities by helping them fill up rivers. In its last instance, the land ministry allocated seven acres of land to Rapid Action Battalion (Rab)-10 in the second channel of the Buriganga near Kamrangirchar.

Besides, on both sides of the BIWTA office in Sadarghat along the Bakland Bandh, the state-run organisation has erected a number commercial sheds and rented those out to traders.

"Land is highly expensive in the old part of the city. So the BIWTA lets people fill up the rivers throwing garbage, rubble and everything. Later they evict the grabbers and make marketplace in that space," says a former official who served at BIWTA for around 30 years.

Though it is mandatory to take environmental clearance from the Department of Environment for any infrastructure construction, both the government agencies and non-government enterprises are found defying the rule.

Additional clearance is required if the project site falls on the riverbank or into the river. But the government offices often overlook this provision.

Last May, Rajuk filled up over half the width of the Balu to construct a low-height bridge to connect its "Purbachal New Model Town" project with the city at Moshkul village in Kuril without clearance from the DoE and BIWTA.

However, Rajuk eventually sought clearance as the DoE prevented them from constructing the bridge and fined them for violating the law following a report published in The Daily Star.

"The project director said they don't need clearance before filling up rivers as they were implementing the government's development project," said Mohammed Munir Chowdhury, director (enforcement and monitoring) of DoE.

Some other agencies including Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC), Export Processing Zone (EPZ), and Dhaka Water Supply Authority (Wasa) are also directly involved in polluting the rivers along with the greedy industrialists or other polluters.

For the last eight years, the BSCIC is working to implement a "Leather Town" with a central effluent treatment plant (ETP) to control pollution caused by the tanners.

But none of the two BSCIC areas in Gazipur and Narayanganj has any central ETP causing severe pollution in the Turag and Shitalakhya.

"Yes, we don't have any effluent treatment plant in the BSCIC areas," said Mahbubur Rahman, project director of Savar Leather Estate of BSCIC, who is also responsible for implementing the relocation project of Hazaribagh tannery in the capital.

Since its inception, the industries in Dhaka EPZ in Savar have been polluting the Bangshi river as they release untreated liquid waste in an adjoining water body. They, however, are now installing a central ETP after polluting the river for a long time.

Enforcement of the environmental laws is also being hampered even by the lawmakers.

Ruling Awami League lawmaker Aslamul Haque began filling up a portion of the Turag by the Martyred Intellectual Bridge in Keraniganj for his power plant project even before he applied for any environmental clearance.

He applied for and got the clearance once his site development work was stopped by the Monitoring and Enforcement wing of the DoE.

"Before earth-filling in the site, the BIWTA officials demarcated the river so that the river areas could be kept aside while earth filling," said Aslamul Haque, who is also a member of the River Saving Taskforce.