Commission visits encroached sites
National River Protection Commission will recommend recovery of the 5km original channel of the Buriganga river from encroachers, said Chairman Md Atharul Islam yesterday.
The original channel, otherwise known as the second channel has been in the worst state with encroachment and waste dumping, he said following his first-ever visit to the Turag and Buriganga rivers. “Whatever may be in the channel will be removed for reclamation." he said.
Over 100 land grabbers including real estate developers, ballpoint pen manufacturers, battery manufacturers, fuel filling stations, and private individuals have grabbed the channel in Kamrangirchar and Kalunagar, according to the findings of Dhaka district administration in February last year. Besides, the district administration leased out seven acres of the channel to Rab near Loharpul, a portion to a power grid sub-station, and two other land plots for a government hospital and a school in Kamrangirchar.
The commission is merely an advisory body under the shipping ministry only to make recommendation and coordinate the role of around a dozen government agencies involved in river management.
The city corporation representative comprised in the visiting team has been instructed to stop dumping solid waste into the Buriganga, Islam said, adding that the Wasa, and Water Development Board would prevent dumping dirty water.
They would check how far the river boundary pillars were faultily installed and ask for rectification in consideration of “reality”, he said, but the wetlands excluded with the pillars must be conserved as per wetland conservation and port laws.
The rivers Buriganga, Turag, Balu, and Shitalakkhya together have lost an estimated 25,000 acres of extensive foreshores making them thinner in the process of installing demarcation pillars, according to sources. With all the rivers grabbed and polluted by powerful quarters, government formed the commission last month to comply with the 2009 High Court orders to save those.
The chairman said they would place some recommendations at the November 2 meeting of the inter-ministerial national taskforce to save the rivers.
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