New DAP must list Dhaka water bodies, heritage sites

The updated detailed area plan (DAP) of Dhaka city must have an inventory of all documented and demarcated water bodies and heritage properties to make Dhaka liveable, environmentalists told a public consultation on Sunday.    

The upcoming revised DAP must ensure conservation of rivers, canals and wetlands in and around the capital city as per official records, said Iqbal Habib, joint general secretary of environmentalist group Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon.

“If need be, land has to be acquired for conservation of canals,” he said, proposing making a list of heritage properties and water bodies for what he termed a "blue network" of canals and rivers and a "green network" of parks and playgrounds.

He also proposed including a provision in DAP for affordable housing for low and middle income people in the light of the UN sustainable development goals and an area-based density zoning map and revision of the Floor Area Ratio chart, a chart to determine allowable floor area of a building.     

Rajdhani Unnyan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) organised the meeting at its Motijheel head office with a view to gathering inputs of civic groups in the ongoing process of updating DAP.    

Prof Abdullah Abu Sayeed, founder of Bishwo Shahitto Kendro and president of Bapa, said that once Dhaka city would boast of hundreds of ponds. It should be inquired into how those ponds have been filled particularly after enactment of the wetland conservation law in 2000, he said.

Prof Nurul Islam Nazem, general secretary of the Centre for Urban Studies, said Rajuk should pursue a realistic urban plan instead of a theoretical one. For example, he said, public movement in Keraniganj and Sadarghat will multiply after completion of the Padma Bridge.

Keeping it in mind, exit and entry points through the entire Sadarghat area have to be revitalised to cope with the situation, he said. 

Maruf Hossain, programme manager of the Work for a Better Bangladesh Trust, said the updated DAP must keep provisions for pedestrian passage and a dedicated motorcycle lane.

Responding to the suggestions, DAP project director Md Ashraful Islam, who took over only nine months back, said he had already instructed the DAP consultants to prepare a list of natural water bodies and heritage properties in the light of SDGs and five-year National Perspective Plan.    

Speaking about parks and open space, he said the upcoming DAP would have a provision for a 100-acre regional park each in Keraniganj and eastern fringe of the city. 

Rajuk board member for development control Md Asmaul Hossain chaired the meeting.

With the existing DAP's 15-year term expiring in 2015 and most of its vital recommendations on wetland and flood flow zone conservation remaining unimplemented, Rajuk embarked on making yet another 20-year DAP in March 2015 for the period from 2016 to 2035.