Sewers Linked to Buriganga: Wasa MD asked to inform HC about steps, plans
The High Court yesterday asked Dhaka Wasa to submit a report on what has been done to implement a 2011 order to stop dumping sewage in the Buriganga river.
The Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) was ordered by the court 10 years ago to seal off the drains and sewer pipes linked to the river.
The HC yesterday directed Dhaka Wasa Managing Director Taqsem A Khan to submit a report on what steps had been taken and what plans had been made to the court through swearing by an affidavit by January 21.
The HC bench of Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore and Justice Mohammad Ullah passed the order during hearing a pending writ petition filed by rights organisation Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB) in May 2010, seeking necessary directives to seal of the drains and sewerage lines connected to the Buriganga and to save it from pollution.
Yesterday, the HC bench observed that Dhaka Wasa was very slow in implementing the 2011 directives.
At this pace, the directives will not be implemented and the pollution of the Buriganga will not stop, the HC bench said.
Earlier in the day, the MD of Dhaka Wasa submitted a compliance report to the HC through his lawyer Umme Salma, saying that the Wasa has sealed off several unauthorised sewerage lines in some areas of the capital, including Kalabagan and Palashi, and has handed over the responsibility of the canals to the city corporations.
Writ petitioner's lawyer Manzill Murshid told the HC that the compliance report submitted by Wasa MD did not show that the HC directives had been implemented.
He prayed to the HC to issue a deadline for the Wasa MD to implement the 2011 directives.
On September 14, last year, during hearing the same petition, the HC bench observed that the Wasa MD was not voluntarily implementing its 2011 directives.
The court also said the Wasa MD has been violating his commitments and making delays in complying with its directives by submitting different affidavits to it and seeking times from the court.
HRPB lawyer Manzill Murshid told The Daily Star that Wasa MD Taqsem A Khan had appeared before the HC bench on March 4 last year and apologised to it for not implementing the 2011 directives.
He submitted an undertaking to the HC, saying that he would take steps to fully comply with the HC directives, he added.
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