The Deb Dholaikhal, popularly known as the Dholaikhal that has shrunk to a narrow drain, was flowing through the heart of Old Dhaka to provide internal communication four decades ago.

Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) is now constructing a box culvert filling up the western end of the canal to pump out stagnated rainwater in a slapdash plan that reminds Dhaka residents of how most of the waterway lost out to encroachment in South Jatrabari, Mirhazirbagh, Kajla and Kutubkhali, stopping the water flow into the citywide canal network.

DCC Chief Engineer Idris Mian said Wasa (Water and Sewerage Authority) did not file a complaint against what he said was development work on the canal.

"Waste from nearby factories collects in the stagnated water with no outlet for disposal," Dholaikhal area resident Rokeya Begum says.

Part of the canal dried up because of the DND embankment construction and a new road a local brick-kiln owner built across it dumping truckloads of earth. The brick-kiln manager says the road would be removed in monsoon.

"Most of the Dholaikhal was sold out years ago when some influential people in collaboration with officials of the Dhaka Deputy Commissioner's Office demarcated their plots paying land tax in their names," Jatrabari resident Shamsul Alam alleges.

Initial occupiers of the canal have sold the plots to hundreds of city dwellers. "Local people are seen dumping truckloads of solid waste into it in a bid to grab it," said a resident in Kajla area.

Dholaikhal area was named after the canal excavated in 1608-1610 by Islam Khan, the first Mughal Subedar of Dhaka. Crossed by an iron suspension bridge connecting Fraashganj (French-ganj) and Gandaria, it once represented the lower course of the Balu River.

The canal took off from this river near Demra and went southwest through Dhaka to join the Buriganga near the Mill Barrack. It branched off into two channels, one northward and the other westward right through the city crossing Dhaka-Tejgaon Road.

For many years, Dholaikhal was used for boat race and other sports, including swimming, and the banks of the canal were abuzz with annual fairs on festive occasions. One of the famous piers was the Panch Bhai Ghat at Rokanpur that the Hindu community used to immerse images of deities into the waters of Dholaikhal after puja.

Dhaka city boasted 26 natural canals, including the Dholaikhal, but none of them have been saved and the consequences can be felt in monsoon when waterlogging halts city activity. A recent inter-ministerial meeting has marked 26 canals for immediate recovery, but little progress has been made.

Although the dredging of the 17-kilometre Buriganga comes to an end, the authorities have allegedly ignored the need for saving the dying canals, including the Dholaikhal, which connects the Buriganga with the city's peripheral towns and villages.