A latest move for revival of the throttled canals in Dhaka metropolitan area for smooth drainage, following handover of the task to the two city corporations from WASA, now seems on a slow lane-as are some other pending utility works.
In the first place, demarcation of the canals to ward off trespassers has yet to be completed.
The bifurcated administration in the capital city-Dhaka South City Corporation and Dhaka North City Corporation-launched separate drives for a cleanup of the waste-choked canals leading to their retrieval from encroachers during the first quarter of this year at different points along several of the canals.
It all appears to have hit snags-and slowed down. City-dwellers have to go on savouring stink and suffering from dirt and occasional swamps during monsoon rain.
The roadblocks are multipronged. Dispute over land ownership, legal tangles, and a lack of coordination are among them, experts and city-corporation officials said.
Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA) transferred the responsibility of 26 canals, box culverts and drainage system to Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) and Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) on December 31, 2020.
During visits to several canals, including Kalyanpur, Rampura, Manda, Gerani, Kajla, and Ramchandrapur, the FE correspondents found some segments of the channels cleaned up, albeit a number of illegal structures still standing alongside.
Contacted, Dhaka north Mayor Atiqul Islam said a proper drainage network has to be established through connecting the drains with canals, canals with retention areas or with the rivers to resolve water-logging in the city during rains.
As DNCC got the legal authority of all sewers and canals, a set of development projects is underway, he said, adding: "We have already started executing some projects while some are at feasibility stage."
Terming the task very challenging, he said many of the city's canals had been filled with garbage, become very narrow, and permanent structures also built grabbing the canal embankments.
Citing an example, he said the DNCC has taken a comprehensive plan to revive three of the Mirpur canals - Sangbadik Colony Canal, Baunia canal and Baishteki canal - which may get funds by this yearend.
He said some parts of these canals completely disappeared due to gradual encroachment while the existing portions became as narrow as four to five feet.
"Besides, many of the canal lands have been recorded as private property over the years taking advantage of lax monitoring and now we have to face legal battle to acquire those through compensation," he added.
According to official records, the Sangbadik Colony canal is 2.4 kilometres in length, Baunia canal 8.8-km-long with width of 10-12 metres, and Baishteki canal is 460-metre-long and 30- metre wide.
"At the same time, the demarcation work of some other canals will start within two months and the DNCC authority is in process to give the work to Bangladesh Army," Mr Islam mentioned.
In July 2020, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) approved a Tk 40.25 billion project for infrastructural development of 18 new wards under the DNCC domain.
Under the project, a total of 29.28-km canals will be excavated or re-excavated to ensure water flow through 13 canals, while around 59km walkways and bicycle lanes would also be constructed.
The Institute of Water Modelling (IWM) has developed the plan which is scheduled to be completed by December 2022 by Bangladesh Army, city-corporation officials said.
Meanwhile, Shawkat Mahmud, Supervising Engineer (Drainage Circle) of DNCC, said currently preparation had been taken to demarcate 29 canals, under their jurisdiction, of which 15 were handed over from WASA.
Following the demarcation, excavation of the canals, renovating the embankments, and construction of walkways will start simultaneously, he said, about a headway they hope to make from the near-stalemate.
On the other hand, the DSCC received five canals, five box culverts, two inactive pump stations and other sorts of equipment from the WASA during the apportionment. The five canals are reckoned as 11 canals considering their branches, DSCC officials said.
A proposed project worth Tk 3.0 billion is underway to reclaim canals, their restoration and beautification, as per the DSCC's fiscal 2021-22 budget documents.
As of August 9, the DSCC brigade of scavengers removed 1.0 million tonnes of waste from the canals, box culverts and drainage as part of the cleanup.
"The DSCC authority began cleaning the canals and box culverts on January 2 this year aiming to restore the canals to their natural flow," says DSCC public relations officer Abu Nasher.
He also said the city authority also went on conducting eviction drive to protect the canals and water bodies from encroachment.
During visits to several canals, including Manda, Gerani and Kajla canals, the FE correspondents found significant areas cleaned up and some illegal structures partially demolished.
Though the city authorities have continued eviction to reclaim the canals, some illegal structures were still erected at some points of the canals, blocking their water flow.
The Manda canal, which splits Mugda and Manda area, was found severely narrowed at some points, as well as sewers directly dumping wastes into the canals.
Moinul Hossain, a local resident of Manik Nagar, next to Manda canal, said the DSCC conducted a massive cleaning and reclamation work at the beginning of the year that resulted in some improvement.
"They demolished some buildings and illegal structures to recover the canals," said Mr Hossain, who has lived in the region since boyhood.
During the spot checks, areas under the newly built Kodomtoli Bridge were found filled with filths, mostly plastic packaging materials and plastic bottles.
A makeshift restaurant operator in Sukhnagar area, Mostafajur Rahman, had seen even a decade ago a limited number of buildings in the area.
"Most of the landlords erected their buildings on wetlands or encroaching canals sans paying heed to compliance or environment safety," says Rahman.
He points his finger at a six-storied building nearby, and says: "We used to catch fish there even a decade ago."
The initiatives to restore the canals to life have drawn good attention of the civil society and urban planners as the authorities concerned used to blame one another over neglect of canal supervision.
Adil Mohammad Khan, general secretary of Bangladesh Institute of Planners (BIP), said right after handover of the canals from WASA, both the city corporations successfully launched drives to clean up garbage and evict encroachers.
However, he said, "There are still problems as the canals haven't been cleaned in full length which is required to ensure water flow into the connecting rivers."
Due to gradual encroachment of canal-banks, random disposal of waste, irregular dredging and decreased connectivity with the outfalls, it has been a challenging task for city authorities to make the canals operational, he added.
Besides, many canals that existed in previous land surveys like RS and CS were dropped in Dhaka city survey (Mohanagar Jareep) which allowed many encroachers to get those canal lands recorded as private property.
Under such circumstances, the city-corporation authorities would have to fight legal battles to recover these grabbed lands, he noted.
Another urban-planning expert, Iqbal Habib, says rescue and recovery of the canal is not an immediate process, rather it would require more than one season to achieve a desired result.
As the authorities approached the urban experts, they suggested avoiding any shortcut methods involving the canals' recovery.
"We advised cleaning and recovering the canals' linkages as a remedy this year," he said.
Authorities should undertake specific programmes conducting a hydro-ecological survey, following court orders to specify the canals' boundaries and ensuring connectivity among the canal networks, says Mr Habib, also a frontline environment activist.
Underscoring the need for a sustainable programme for the canals, the green campaigner said earlier some projects were taken without adequate planning; consequently those resulted in the squandering of public money.
Responding to a query, he said: "It is not high time to justify whether the new overseer has succeeded with their new responsibility."
He highlighted recovering the genuine connectivity of the canal network, evicting the encroachers, not dumping solid or liquid waste directly into the canals and recovery of the water bodies to make the efforts see success.
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