Embankments made it worse

Environment activists yesterday said the government needs to exercise “open approach” policy instead of existing “cordon approach”, which caused dying of canals, to end waterlogging in Dhaka city and elsewhere in the country.

Embankments cordoned off Dhaka city to save it from flood. It proved wrong because those embankments disconnected canals from the adjacent rivers and caused waterlogging in the city, they said.

On the other hand, connection between rivers and canals will be resumed in “open approach” and it will ensure free flow of water, they added.

They raised the issue at a press briefing arranged by Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (BAPA) and Bangladesh Environment Network (BEN) at Dhaka Reporters' Unity.

At the briefing, BAPA and BEN placed a 59-point proposal for the government.

The proposal was made during a BAPA-BEN conference on “Flood, Waterlogging and Landslide” in January this year in Dhaka, said BAPA General Secretary Abdul Matin.

BAPA member Iqbal Habib said due to embankment in Dhaka-Narayanganj-Demra (DND) project in the 1960s, low lands in many parts of the area were waterlogged.

“The city is facing severe waterlogging problem because there is no way left for quick flow of rain water to the rivers,” he added.

Habib stressed coordination and cooperation among government organisations, including the two city corporations, to end its waterlogging problem.

Scientist Prof M Feroz Ahmed, who was a key figure behind the January conference, said the government lacks comprehensive planning to end waterlogging crisis.

In most cases, the authorities in Dhaka city try to give area-based temporary solution for waterlogging after receiving complaints from locals. “But they do not think about the city as a whole,” he said.