Why Wasa's reservoirs dying

Though sufficient areas as water retention pond is necessary for reducing waterlogging and flood management through flood protection embankment, the retention areas of the western part is reducing fast due to a lack of proper initiatives by the government.

During construction of the 36km western embankment, three permanent pump stations, Kallyanpur, Goran Chatbari and Dholaikhal, were set up with retentions ponds, which have reduced over the years due to negligence.

A retention basin is used to manage storm water runoff to prevent flooding and downstream erosion, and improve water quality in an adjacent river, stream, lake or bay.

Moreover, lack of an efficient storm sewer system also contributes to the reduction of water carrying capacity, causing waterlogging, drainage congestion and other hazards throughout the monsoons.

These constraints have to be identified and to reduce the capital's flood vulnerability it is essential to protect and preserve flood retention ponds, said experts.

Retention pond at Goran Chatbari pump station is comparatively in a better condition though 40 acres of land have been reduced recently due to the construction work of an elevated expressway.

Dholaikhal pump station has also lost its retention area due to the construction of a box culvert in the 90s by Dhaka City Corporation.

According to experts at least 105 acres of regulatory pond areas are necessary for the pumping station at Dholai Khal, which has now only 3.5 acres.

There are three pumps at the station with a 7.4 cumec (cubic metre per second) capacity each.

In Kallyanpur pump station the retention area is under the risk of being encroached if Wasa does not go for its ownership soon as the government has failed to acquire lands over the last 25 years.

In a study report in 1990, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) suggested setting up a pumping station with a capacity of 20 cumec in the area, and keeping 514 acres of land for regulating ponds.

But the government has acquired only around 57 acres of land so far. The city's waterlogging situation is worsening due to a rapid growth of unplanned urbanisation at many parts of the reserved areas.

The government on the other hand is continuously reducing its land acquiring targets and now they are completely out of the land acquisition process.

Two pump stations were set up with the grant of Jica at the station, having capacity of 10 cumec each in 1993 and 2010. Jica's requirement was to create a regulatory pond on 514 acres of land initially and it was reduced to 227 acres later. But the government failed to acquire land showing fund shortage.

It would have been possible to acquire the total land initially using only Tk 50 crore but now it is a matter of big amount of money, said a Wasa official.

Wasa now has 171 acres of land under their control -- 57 acres acquired, 98.35 of Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC), 9.71 of canal land of Wasa and 11.4 khas land.

Wasa is using the BADC land for 3 months (August to October) as a regulatory pond and the rest of the months BADC is using it as their seed beds following a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between them. But these lands are also under threat of encroachment.

The pump station and its regulating pond area are important as water of the areas including a large part of Mirpur, Kallaynpur, Rokeya Sarani, Kazipara, Shewrapara, Agargaon, Sangsad Bhaban area, Mohammadpur, Rayerbazar, Satmasjid Road and BDR area gathers there, which is then pumped out to the Buriganga river, said a Wasa official.

The waterlogging will worsen if around 227 acres of land are not kept reserved as retention areas, many of which are now under threat of grabbing, he said.

Prof Emeritus of Brac University Ainun Nishat, a water resources and climate change specialist, said the reservoir should be kept according to its plan to get proper benefits.

If the regulating areas are reduced, then it will be necessary to increase the pumping capacity, otherwise the areas around the pond will inundate, he said.

He said many areas from where water comes to the pond through different canals will also be inundated if it is not pumped out properly.

Meanwhile, the Executive Committee of National Economic Council at a meeting on January 19, 2000 approved about Tk 82.66 crore project to acquiring 269.78 acres of land (152.70acre private land, 117.08acre of BADC and some others organisations' land) and fixed the implementing time from June 1998 to 2001.

Advertisements were also published in newspapers on August 20, 2000 by authorities concerned requesting people not to construct any house or structures on the 270 acres of low land areas under the project.

But unplanned urbanisation has been going on unabated there, sources said.

The land ministry on February 7, 2002 cancelled the acquiring process due to the expiration of the scheduled time of section 5(1) of land acquisition, said a Wasa official.

Later the government decided to implement the retention area on around 227 acres of land (private land 101.28 acres, BADC 98.35 acres, Water Development Board 6.36 acres, Wasa 9.7 acres and khas land 11.4 acres)

Wasa on January 25, 2006, again requested the ministry to acquire 116.02 acres of land (104.62acre private and 11.4acre khas) to implement the second phase of the Kallyanpur pump station, he said, adding that the ministry on February 11, 2007, finally approved to acquire 112.68 acres of land (101acre private land).

But it was also not done at that time as a committee again suggested reducing the regulating area and only around 57 acres were acquired due to a fund shortage and decided to acquire the rest around 56 acres in the second phase.

Later on July 11, 2013, in a meeting of Economic Relations Division, a decision was taken to construct the regulatory pond on 171  acres of land (BADC 98.35 acres, Water Development Board 6.36 acres, Wasa 9.7 acres and acquired 57 acres) leaving the process of acquiring 56.19 acres.

Institute of Water Modelling then carried out a study, and suggested setting up another pump having a capacity of 16 cumec to continue the retention areas on 171 acres of land.

It also suggested evicting illegal grabbers from the pond area, excavating the pond to increase its capacity and the canal mouths and setting up boundaries for its proper utilisation.

Wasa later prepared a Development Project Proforma (DPP) following the decision, which was supposed to be implemented by July 2015 to June 2018.

Later, following another decision at a government meeting, Wasa is again preparing to re-submit the DPP.

In Goran Chatbari pumping station, there was only one pumping station with a capacity of 22 cumec. Later in 2010-15, another 22 cumec capacity pump was set up by reducing the marshy lands for the construction of the Rajuk's Uttara third phase, said a Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) official.

But BWDB is setting up another pump there having a capacity of 22 cumec as the BWDB handed over 40 acres of land from its retention area to the road transport and bridges ministry to construct the elevated expressway.

An IWM study suggested setting up another pump with a 22 cumec capacity to meet the deficit of 40 acres of land from the retention area, said Abul Kamal Azad, chief engineer (central zone) of BWDB.

The ministry will bear the cost from the elevated expressway project and have already started setting up the pump and handed over the land to them, he said, adding, an MoU was signed between the two sides on September 21, 2016.

Total retention area of Goran Chatbari is 676 acres (273hectare) from where they have handed over the 40 acres of land, he said.

Prof Nishat said that keeping a retention pond in front of every pump station is a must.

Though it was planned to keep more areas as retention pond for Goran Chatbari, it was not done due to the pressure of influential people, he alleged.

The areas kept as retention ponds are being protected with huge hurdles, he said.

Nishat said there is no regulatory pond in front of the Kallyanpur pump station, as Wasa does not have the ownership of the pond area. They are increasing the capacity of the pumping station but if the situation continues, the station will lose its effectiveness by the next 10 to 15 years, he warned.

Though it was the suggestion of a high powered committee of the government in 1989 formed after the 1988 flood, to purchase the land, it was not implemented, he added.