Living in DND area a curse

About two million people living in Dhaka-Narayanganj-Demra (DND) project area on the eastern side of Dhaka city find themselves in a difficult situation as civic amenities are hardly available. Their sufferings further aggravate during monsoon when rainwater enters houses, besides inundating roads. In the absence of proper drainage system, water remains stagnant for days.
Roads in DND project are in bad shape with potholes, craters and depressions abound. Drains are silted and flow of rainwater through canals is halted as these are filled up with solid garbage. Unplanned constructions of buildings without provision for drainage system also contribute to the water-logging. Household and industrial garbage are thrown directly to the canals. This obstructs smooth flushing of water.
The curse of water-logging in DND project and also in various parts of Dhaka city appears to have come to stay. Unauthorised construction and filling up of drains and wetlands adjoining Dhaka city have made it almost impossible to find out a lasting solution to the nagging problem by the authorities concerned. Utter negligence on the part of successive governments since liberation contributed to the prevailing water-logging. The process of illegal occupation of wetlands through which rain and waste waters from the city used to flow throughout the year continues unabated. A quick solution to the prevailing crisis is not in sight mainly due to lack of strong political will.
Sources at the ministry of water resources told a local daily last week that the government completed a project in 2012 for cleaning garbage from canals in DND area at a cost of Taka 35.9 million on an emergency basis.
It may be mentioned that nearly half a century ago a vast tract of land from city's Jatrabari to Narayanganj was acquired to create a green belt for supplying fresh vegetables to the townspeople. The Dhaka-Narayanganj-Demra (DND) irrigation project was implemented in order to irrigate the land. A 100-kilometre-long canal was dug and the government also acquired over 5000 hectares of farm land. The entire land within the DND embankment turned into a flood-free zone after implementation of the project.
As the population of Dhaka city started to increase with every passing year, the housing problem became acute. Therefore, people in large numbers began to purchase private land there for constructing houses. Many settlers managed to occupy government land in the project area for building houses, factories and business establishments. The process continued fast and the green belt gradually turned into a vast area of human habitation.
Of the 5000 hectares of agricultural land, a little over 1000 hectares now remain unoccupied. But the inhabitants now curse their decision to come here to live because of water-logging. Roads and residential areas inside the DND project goes under knee to waist-deep water after moderate shower for a day or two because of faulty drainage system. The Water Development Board(WDB)  which is trying to flush out stagnant water blames chocked drains and filling up of canals for the water-logging.
The WDB has a pump station at Shimrail to flush out water from DND project. The station maintains 25 pumps which are quite inadequate to drain out so much of water to the adjacent river. The WDB, on a number of occasions, requested the Dhaka City Corporation to clean the canals and dismantle unauthorised structures on those but to no effect. The drainage division of Dhaka WASA also blames shortage of manpower for proper maintenance of the drains. The 11-kilometre-long canal from Godnail to Mridhabari has been filled up by the illegal occupants.
Local people say that the marshy land between Jatrabari and Mridhabari conserved rain water previously. But the site has been filled up for setting up CNG station. According to sources, the Ministry of Communications and Roads and Highways Department during the past four-party alliance government allocated land for installation of 15 CNG stations inside the DND project in 2003. In many places of the submerged localities only means of transport are small country boats and rickshaw vans. Makeshift 'machans' are erected by the dwellers to protect themselves from inundation. But those also go under water. For the last few years, the residents inside DND project have been living amid black water mixed with garbage and toxic substances.
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