Buriganga cleaning drive starts in Jan

Rampant and mindless dumping of polythene bags, plastics, coconut shells and other waste materials especially from the kitchen markets has produced millions of tonnes of sludge on the bed of the river Buriganga, said a BIWTA official.
The highest concentration of such waste has settled on the bed of the river near Sadarghat launch terminal in the capital, prompting Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority to take up a cleaning drive from the first week of January 2010.
“Initially we will remove the garbage from one kilometre area of the Buriganga bed stretching from Badamtoli Bridge to Simpson Ghat near Sadarghat,” said another official of BIWTA, adding that the drive will go on for three months.
The target of the drive is to clear up around three lakh cubic metre of sludge from the Buriganga.
The river Turag has also gathered one metre deep sludge on its bed near Tongi Bazar. This area will also come under the excavation drive later.
“We will use four local dredgers to remove waste materials and substances. A process of floating tender in this regard is going on,” the official said.
It is very difficult for day labourers to do the job due to high concentration of sludge and waste, he said, adding that they would still try it again on the first day of the drive.
“The normal dredgers can do very little in removing garbage out of the riverbed. We need Amphyevin dredger but it involves an expenditure of Tk 5 crore,” he said.
The removed sludge will be dumped somewhere at Amin Bazar, he added.
The estimated cost of the drive is around Tk 5 crore, which will come from the revenue budget. A project to remove the garbage from the beds of Buriganga and Turag has also been taken.
The development project proposal titled “Removing garbage including polythene from the river bed” is underway. The estimated cost of the project is Tk 150 crore. The proposal will be submitted to the shipping ministry by the first week of January.
Under the project 20 km area of Buriganga stretching from Kholamora to Fatulla and 4 km area of river Turag at Ijtema point will be excavated, said another official.
The Amphyevin dredger will be used to excavate the garbage under the project, he said.