Bureaucratic tangles encroaching hope

An initiative to widening some of the city's choked up canals and digging a new one has stirred hope of giving much respite from the menace of waterlogging in some parts of the capital. 

However, the initiative taken back in 2012 by Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) is still far from being implemented due to a bureaucratic tangle over land acquisition issue, which remained unresolved over the past four years since the project's inception.

A list of 43 canals was prepared by a committee formed in 2004 to identify, recover and reopen the canals, where the committee identified 26 canals under Wasa as recoverable, says an official of Wasa.

The Wasa had earlier taken initiatives in line with a decision of the last caretaker government to recover the canals from encroachers. However, the initiatives have not yielded proper success. Besides, once the recovery drive is over, many of the canals again get encroached due to lack of excavation, proper demarcation and monitoring, experts say.

On top of that, the concept of box culvert came after the 1988 flood when most of the city came under waterlogging. A high powered committee of the government, formed at that time to mitigate the problem, submitted a report in 1989. After that in the 90s the construction of the box culverts and roads on the canals started significantly.

So, land acquisition is needed for increasing the width of three canals - Hazaribagh, Baishteki-Sangbadik Colony and Manda - and for digging a new canal at Kurmitola, according to Wasa officials.

Water-logging problems of the areas like parts of Dhanmondi, Hazaribagh, Mirpur-10, Kalsi, Polasnagar, Kurmitola, Motijheel, Segunbagicha, Santinagar, Kamalapur, Fakirapool and Razarbagh are expected to ease once Wasa succeeds in implementing the project, said an official of Wasa.

Managing Director of Wasa Taqsem A Khan said there are some canals that do not have continuity that was why they had taken the land acquiring project.

He said they have already submitted a Development Project Proforma (DPP) and hoping to get the approval shortly. “If we can acquire lands for the four canals then we will be able to increase their navigability,” he said.

However, another Wasa official said after the project initiation in late 2012, they first submitted a DPP to the planning commission through LGRD ministry in March 2014.

A feasibility study was completed in February last year as per the direction of the planning commission and they submitted the DPP again in September.

Wasa is working to solve some observations related to the land acquisition and land under the Water Development Board and will submit the DPP again to the planning commission in a month since the commission had asked them to complete some queries based on their requirements, said the official.

Hazaribagh Canal

Currently the canal's width from near Shikdar Medical College to Bangladesh Water Development Board Sluice Gate-7 is only two to three feet as the water from the site goes through a pipe though the width of other part of the canal is 20 to 30 feet.

As a result, the residents of part of Dhanmondi and Hazaribagh are being affected. If the width of that portion is not increased then their problem will not be solved, said the Wasa official.

Baishteki Canal

Land is needed to be acquired for the canal to link it with Baunia canal. Now the water through the canals is being dropped in various low lands belonging to the private owners.

Due to lack of the canals' inter-link, the residents are being affected.

Manda Canal

Manda is a very important canal of the city. Water of Jirani, Segunbagicha and Khilgaon-Basabo canals confluence at Manda and moves to Balu river through it.

The width of Manda at downstream is only 10-20 feet which needs to be extended to 30-60 feet to maintain its proper flow, said the official.

Proposed Canal

Air Force Base in Kurmitola comes under water-logging after heavy showers due to a lack of proper drainage system, he said.

To solve the problem, a canal is needed to be created which will have a link with the Baunia canal.