Dhaka city canals dying

The last remaining canals in the capital are being choked to death with the authorities doing almost nothing to save them, making the city vulnerable to waterlogging even after a light or moderate rain.

Indiscriminately grabbed and poorly maintained, some two dozen canals with a total length of 65km are failing to properly function as the city's storm drainage.

The September 1 deluge was a pointer to the extremity of the situation. Life in the city grinded to a chaotic halt following a normal 42mm monsoon rainfall on the day.

After this, experts have repeatedly underscored that there is no alternative to recovering the existing canals and peripheral floodplains from the grabbers' grip to save the city of over 15 million people.

While the existing open canals have been either choked with solid waste or encroached upon by powerful land grabbers, some 10km stretches of different canals have been turned into concrete box culverts, clean-up of which is beyond the existing capacities of the city corporations and Dhaka Wasa.

Despite the horrible experience on September 1, there has been no visible attempt so far to restore the canals to their original state.

Both mayors Annisul Huq of Dhaka North City Corporation and Sayeed Khokon of Dhaka South in their election manifestos had pledged that they would act to reclaim the canals.

But now, both say they have neither the legal authority nor the financial capacity to do so, and pass the buck on to the district administration and the Water and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) of Dhaka.

Wasa Managing Director Taqsem A Khan said, "We have not yet undertaken any fresh programme this year to reclaim the encroached canals."

What's more important than reclaiming them is to build walkways on both sides as protection demarcations to save the canals from being encroached upon again, he said. "But this is very expensive and depends on availability of funds."

The Wasa has done this for about 13 canals so far with the World Bank funding, said Taqsem.

Even if the banks are protected, in some cases, the end of some canals is blocked by residential structures, making the arteries largely ineffective, he added.

As an example, he cited the Mirpur canal which was supposed to carry rainwater to the floodplains of Kalshi and beyond. But a lot of buildings have been constructed in Kalshi, blocking the canal from flowing any further.

The open canals are supposed to serve as major storm water carriers, said Md Mujibur Rahman, professor of civil engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.

But since they are clogged with solid waste and constricted by encroachments and installation of narrow concrete channels, the city gets waterlogged every time it rains, he said.

Besides, extensive flood flow zones and water retention areas around the capital, where the canals and large-diameter pipes carry rainwater to, have been filled up consistently for years, said the professor, who has worked on drainage system for over three decades.

Unless the illegally occupied canals are reclaimed, it is not possible to save the city from waterlogging, Mujibur added.

According to the Flood Action Plan adopted by the government in 1989, the capital city should have conserved at least 20,093 acres of canals apart from floodplains and water retention areas.

However, none of the agencies responsible for looking after the city has any idea about the total area of the canals at the moment.