Reports say the government is set to spend Tk 50 billion in a bid to excavate new canals in the northern part of the capital. While the project sounds holy enough to inspire hope of relieving some parts of Dhaka of the terrible water logging during the monsoon, the astonishing fact that snuffs all hopes is that in the past thirty years or so, around forty canals have either totally disappeared in and around Dhaka, while some have turned into tiny muddy trickles.
A daily newspaper reports that 39 canals have totally disappeared. Those that are still alive are mostly in the grip of influential quarters. Besides, due to construction of roads and walkways on both sides of the canals, there is hardly any space left to maintain them to allow discharge of water. On the other hand, unplanned urbanisation has led to the building of box culverts over the canals, an act believed to be instrumental in killing the vital arteries of the capital.
Since the Mayors of Dhaka's two city corporations took over around two years back, both of them seemed keen on removing unauthorised structures over canals as well as recovering others that are disappearing or have already disappeared due to encroachment or grabbing. Some efforts were also noticed in some areas, but as things stand now, the drive didn't materialise, or at the very best only partly.
Now that the city development authority (RAJUK) has undertaken the ambitious project of digging new canals, the obvious question that remains unanswered is about the fate of the lost canals. Reportedly, RAJUK has started work on digging 100ft wide canals along both sides of the 300ft road from the capital's Kuril Bishaw Road to Purbachal. The estimated expenditure is more than Tk 50 billion, of which the major portion-more than 80 per cent-is being spent on land acquisition.
No matter how useful the new canals might prove to be, what bothers the country's urban experts is the authority's lack of interest in the lost and about-to-be-lost canals. We have been hearing about steps, even stern steps to address the situation from successive governments, but nothing is in sight as of now.
According to the Dhaka WASA, until 1985, the capital had 54 canals and most of those were interlinked making their ultimate journey towards the four rivers around the city easy. It is not at all difficult to detect how most of them got lost or buried and the nature of hindrance that caused them so. All it takes, according to the experts, is political will - one that we happen to experience only occasionally.
In fact, it doesn't require an expert to bring home the importance of canals in rescuing Dhaka from the dreadful water logging and a host of other accompanying problems and public suffering. However, help from the experts is necessary to identify the routes of the canals lost to human greed and misdeeds. Professor Ainun Nishat, noted environmentalist in an interview with a local daily, commented that tracing the routes of the canals can easily be done from documents, including the length and breadth of each and every canal. The Dhaka district administration can play a leading role in this. Most of the canals are 'owned' by the district authority. The Dhaka WASA is in charge of maintaining about two dozens of the canals, the remaining few are virtually 'orphans' with no single agency assigned to maintain them. Another renowned urban expert Professor Nazrul Islam commented that the only way we can hope to recover the lost canals and maintain those is through enacting a law. Mere threats with no effective enforcement won't help.
Canals in many big cities are life lines potentially capable of cleansing cities from dirt and garbage in a natural way-- beside flashing out rain waters as well as containing flash floods to a great extent. In Thailand's capital Bangkok, canals encircling the city are also a treat for the eyes. The clean flow of water, courtesy of painstaking maintenance, is a good enough respite for the city dwellers amid the city din.
In traffic-choked Dhaka, canals could also be an attractive means for an alternative mode of travel for commuters, provided that such a scheme was well designed and strictly enforced. But before indulging in such wishful daydreams, let the canals announce their presence first.
