When canals that run in and around the capital have either fallen into a terrible state or hurtled towards a slow death in the absence of effective waste management and because of encroachment, canals and water bodies in Naraynganj are in no better shape. A waste-filled DND canal at Siddhirganj in Narayanganj, as a photograph that 抖阴精品 published on April 22 shows, is representative of all canals and water bodies that have been left unprotected. Unplanned dumping of domestic wastes, kitchen market wastes, faecal sludge and medical and electronic wastes keeps destroying the canals, polluting the environment, causing water stagnation and adversely impacting public health. Narayanganj people say that canals and water bodies, especially close to industrial areas, are faced with a slow death as wastes are haphazardly dumped in them while influential people have grabbed parts of many canals and water bodies. If such haphazard waste dumping and land grab continue, the canals and water bodies will face the fate of the canals and water bodies of the capital.
In Dhaka, not even a single canal is now free of pollution and encroachment. A number of canals have also lost their flow and some have just disappeared, too, because of unabated encroachment. The existence of a few canals in Dhaka has been only on paper as they have all now been encroached on. Many others are headed for the same fate in the absence of any effective action. About two-thirds of areas of canals and water retention and flood flow zones earmarked by the Flood Action Plan and the Detailed Area Plan have already been occupied by powerful quarters and government agencies. The authorities appear to have failed to address the issue adequately. In the past, various agencies took some measures such as enlisting grabbers of river and canal land, conducting drives to reclaim grabbed land, destroying illegal structures on river or canal land and penalising industries for dumping untreated waste into rivers and canals. But the measures, which failed to work, have not been sustainable. When there are a number of laws, rules, policies and guidelines to ensure environmentally-friendly waste management and stop encroachment, the failure to save the canals and water bodies is deplorable.
It is high time the authorities in Dhaka and surrounding districts abandoned paying lip service to the issue and showed the will to reclaim and preserve the canals, wetland, green areas and water bodies. The government should, therefore, take up an integrated approach, dealing with all factors that contribute to the destruction of the canals, to reclaim and conserve the canals to stop the city from hurtling to a disaster.