Lifeless Buriganga river
Saturday, 7 June 2008
A private TV channel recently telecast a series report on the river Buriganga. The report's gist is that the river is almost dead. During cruise on this historic river, anyone will surely be confronted with foul smells resulting from massive pollution.
When different socio-cultural organisations are planning to celebrate the 400 years of Dhaka, its main river -- the Buriganga -- is becoming extinct. Its banks were a prime location when the Mughals made Dhaka their capital in 1610. It was once the main source of drinking water for Dhaka's residents. Waste from sewers and factories, especially tanneries, made the river almost lifeless today.
Reports say that up to 40,000 tonnes of tannery-waste flow into the river daily along with sewerage from Dhaka. Human waste is responsible for 60 per cent of pollution in the river, followed by industrial waste at 30 per cent. The rest is solid waste. Illegal structures have sprung up along its banks, narrowing the river and adding to the dirt, while ferries spill oil into its waters. The Buriganga is a poisonous river now.
We have no choice but to save the river at any cost. An urgent priority is to dredge the bed of the Buriganga as silt and rubbish, including polythene bags, have lowered its depth. A major task is to remove the tanneries and to divert the sewerage lines.
Although successive government promised many things to save the river, they did nothing, in reality, to clean up the river. The government's inaction is painful. The immediate past BNP government and the present caretaker government tried to ensure the navigability and the normal flow of Buriganga by evicting illegal structures on its banks. But the encroaches have been coming back, time and again.
The BNP government had a decision to ban brick kilns within 250 metres of the river bank, structures within 540 metres, remove garbage and silt from the river bed and to divert water from the Jamuna river to keep a good flow of the Buriganga year round. Unless the government implements the plan quickly, the river will be as good as dead.
Ahmed Rezaur Rahman
Dhanmandi R/A, Dhaka
When different socio-cultural organisations are planning to celebrate the 400 years of Dhaka, its main river -- the Buriganga -- is becoming extinct. Its banks were a prime location when the Mughals made Dhaka their capital in 1610. It was once the main source of drinking water for Dhaka's residents. Waste from sewers and factories, especially tanneries, made the river almost lifeless today.
Reports say that up to 40,000 tonnes of tannery-waste flow into the river daily along with sewerage from Dhaka. Human waste is responsible for 60 per cent of pollution in the river, followed by industrial waste at 30 per cent. The rest is solid waste. Illegal structures have sprung up along its banks, narrowing the river and adding to the dirt, while ferries spill oil into its waters. The Buriganga is a poisonous river now.
We have no choice but to save the river at any cost. An urgent priority is to dredge the bed of the Buriganga as silt and rubbish, including polythene bags, have lowered its depth. A major task is to remove the tanneries and to divert the sewerage lines.
Although successive government promised many things to save the river, they did nothing, in reality, to clean up the river. The government's inaction is painful. The immediate past BNP government and the present caretaker government tried to ensure the navigability and the normal flow of Buriganga by evicting illegal structures on its banks. But the encroaches have been coming back, time and again.
The BNP government had a decision to ban brick kilns within 250 metres of the river bank, structures within 540 metres, remove garbage and silt from the river bed and to divert water from the Jamuna river to keep a good flow of the Buriganga year round. Unless the government implements the plan quickly, the river will be as good as dead.
Ahmed Rezaur Rahman
Dhanmandi R/A, Dhaka