Save canals from grabbers for flood-free Dhaka

Restoration of some of the capital's documented canals would be enough to resolve the challenge of urban flooding, said lawmaker AKM Rahmatullah yesterday.

However, his claim was contradicted by DAP Project Director Md Ashraful Islam who said merely the documented canals will not be enough for dispersing flood water from the city.

There is a mandatory provision in Dhaka's master plan for designating at least 12 percent of the eastern fringe as flood retention areas as per Flood Action Plan study and the recorded canals would constitute only a small part of required retention areas, he added.

They made the comments during a public discussion on Dhaka's 20-year detailed area plan (DAP) at the lawmaker's Gulshan office.

The DAP is the detailed interpretive component of the master plan for a planned capital city.

Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk), custodian of the master plan, organised the programme in cooperation with the lawmaker and half a dozen union parishad chairmen from the eastern part of the city.

“There is no need for provision of flood retention areas or low-lying flood flow zones in the master plan,” said the lawmaker.

There are 48 canals in the city with a dozen of them in the eastern fringe documented in the land records, and reclamation of those from the clutch of real estate developers and land grabbers would be enough for flood disposal, said Rahmatullah. And, there is no need for even widening the canals.

It may be noted that the canals alongside low-lying croplands in the eastern fringe have been either filled up or narrowed down by influential real estate developers to make way for housing projects over the last decade in violation of private housing development rules and wetland and environment conservation laws.

Rahmatullah also said there must be provisions for playgrounds and all other civic amenities in any residential neighbourhood in proportion to the population density. 

While, the DAP project director said with croplands being urbanised at the eastern fringe, the canals must be widened for an adequate drainage network.

Reclamation of canals from powerful grabbers would depend on political decisions, said Islam, adding, except for the areas earmarked for urbanisation, the remaining areas would be earmarked for agriculture and flood flow zones.

The Union Parishad chairmen of Beraid, Dumni, Badda, Uttarkhan, Santarkul and Nasirabad -- the areas that comprise the eastern fringe -- too said there was no need for designated water retention zones. They also demanded for narrower canals and roads than those proposed in the existing DAP.

In the existing DAP, Rajuk earmarked extensive wetlands and flood flow zones without making people aware of it or without taking measures to conserve those and as a result, it failed, alleged Md Kamal Uddin, union parishad chairman of Uttar Khan.

The lawmaker and the chairmen accused Rajuk of rampant corruption and altering their own master plan to provide housing plots to powerful quarters during all the governments.

“There is a problem in our collective mindset. We often do not mean what we say,” said Ziaul Hasan, Rajuk board member for planning.

With the current DAP expiring its 15-year term in 2015 without having implemented most of its key recommendations on conservation of wetlands and flood flow zones, Rajuk embarked on adopting yet another 20-year detailed plan in March 2015 for the period 2016-2035.

Rajuk chief town planner Md Sirajul Islam also attended.