Protecting wetlands around Dhaka

Rahman Jahangir | Published: July 16, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

The prime minister's announcement of the government's plan to excavate two canals near the Kuril flyover in the capital to deal with any possible flood has to be welcomed by environmentalists. She announced the decision on Sunday at a function marking the inauguration of the World Environment Day and Environment Fair 2015 in Dhaka.
It is heartening to see the prime minister calling upon the city elite living in Gulshan, Banani and Baridhara areas to pay special attention to the lakes in those locations, while pointing out that the size, width and depth of the lakes have shrunk sharply over the years due to the construction of residential buildings filling up those lakes.
At a time when the Dhaka city has emerged as one of the worst livable cities of the world, efforts must be taken as a top priority to protect and preserve all the vanishing wetlands in and around the Bangladesh capital. More so, experts at a recent seminar revealed that more than 10,000 acres of wetlands, enough to make up 146 Ramna Parks, have disappeared so far owing to illegal earth filling in and around the capital. The tendency to encroach on wetland had increased since the government issued the gazette of Detailed Area Planning (DAP) in 2010.
Unfortunately, despite a public outcry and judicial orders, no authority had taken effective measures to protect rivers and wetlands, as the encroachers and polluters had links with political parties in power. Analysing the satellite images of five water bodies in Dhaka city, Savar, Gazipur and Narayanganj, an expert said about 77 per cent of the wetlands on the city's eastern fringe had already been filled up. He showed how earth filling had increased after a gazette was issued on October 22, 2010. In 2006, encroachers began filling a flood flow zone at Baraid in the city's eastern part and filled up an area of 383 acres till February 27, 2010. They suddenly stepped up the pace of earth filling after the gazette notification had been issued, and they had already filled up a total of 717 acres of wetland, designated as one of the water retention areas in the DAP.
Despite orders from the High Court to save rivers, no effective measures have yet been taken to stop river pollution. The Buriganga still remains in its worst state. The existing laws were good enough to protect rivers and wetlands. The Wetland Conservation Act-2000 seeks to stop the practice of encroachment, filling of khas lands and wetlands in and around Dhaka city but what is needed is strict enforcement of the Act.
But sadly, district administrators, who were supposed to take action against land grabbers, were found to have helped land grabbers encroach rivers in and around Dhaka city. Around 1,860 acres of land have already been grabbed along the banks of the Shitalakkhya river during the demarcation by the district administration.
Experts have suggested protection of at least 40 per cent of the drainage areas of Dhaka City as wetlands and water bodies for saving the metropolis from frequent internal floods. Of the 40 per cent, a minimum 12 per cent of the drainage areas equivalent to about 20km needs to be made available as reserved water bodies or lakes and the remaining 28 per cent (46km) protected as natural wetlands for retention of storm waters.
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