Few large cities in the world are blessed with four rivers flowing by it. Dhaka is one of them. Being the capital of a country filled with rivers, the city is geographically expected to have one or more rivers around it. Dhaka has the Buriganga, the largest, on which it stands, and the three distributaries branching out from it on meandering courses. Any country, be it poor or rich, would have taken pride in these four rivers. Rivers are much-treasured natural resources for a country. It's only the insensitive nations that trifle with these gifts of nature, barring, of course, Bangladesh. Letting the rivers around Dhaka get mindlessly being encroached on, choke with effluents and solid waste and, thus, keep shrinking, Bangladesh has long been causing their deaths.
The Buriganga, Shitalakkhya, Balu and Turag --- the four rivers on its four sides would have helped Dhaka emerge as a magnificent city. It did not happen. The once-abundant fish populations have literally deserted these rivers. Many point the finger at the myriads of administrative shortcomings and failures for the underutilisation of these rivers. The Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) has taken several initiatives to introduce an effective circular waterway on the peripheries of Dhaka. The objective is to ease the pressure of traffic on the city roads. Life in Dhaka remains crippled with massive gridlocks. Thanks to these snarl-ups, commuters have been consistently losing their valuable time and energy for over the last two decades. Against this backdrop, the concept of a circular waterway materialised in 2005. The 29.5-kilometre route targeted taking passengers by motor launch from Sadarghat to Ashulia in Savar area. In between the two destinations, several landing stations were also set up.
Due to its unique nature, the launch service was expected to become popular with people commuting on Dhaka's north-south bus routes. There were plenty of reasons. First, the service was completely free of the discomforts experienced in a road transport. The waterway passengers did not have to dread the agonising traffic jams day in and day out. The trips were pollution-free. They rather offered some moments of leisure and solitude to the generally weary passengers. Ironically, despite a lengthier time supposed to be spent on the waterway, it in reality proved shorter than roads.
Owing to its being gridlock-free, the water route allowed the launches to operate unhindered. In spite of these advantages, launches did not get enough passengers which could keep the service afloat. To the chagrin of the promoters, the route did not work. The number of its commuters began falling from even the few who had initially opted for the in-city launch trips. In a couple of months, the launches put into service were found shuttling between the two final points of the route virtually empty. The otherwise cool and passenger-friendly initiative fell through. So did the other two attempts taken later after considerable gaps. In fact, the failure to put the waterway into operation nipped in the bud the future plan to introduce the second phase of the route connecting Dhaka's northern and southern points. It was supposed to use the Turag, Balu and Shitalakkhya rivers. The waterway now in service carries just a symbolic value.
Experts have blamed mindless encroachment on the Dhaka's rivers, dumping of solid waste, pollution and loss of the rivers' navigability for the failure of the waterway. The rivers have kept shrinking unabated causing a fall in the previous speed of the vessels, except during monsoon. With the authorities remaining oblivious to the imperatives of dredging and the measures to stop waste-dumping and encroachment, the rivers are destined to be unsuitable for waterway vessels. There are no reasons for the resultant time-consuming trips to keep commuters interested in those.
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