Drive to free Buriganga of sludge is welcome

THE authorities will be launching a drive in the first week of January to flush out sludge from the bed of the Buriganga. For those who have in recent months been engaged in a movement to free our rivers of all impediments to navigability, it is certainly cheering news. Indeed, the very active role played in the drive for a recovery of rivers from encroachment and similar such conditions by the judiciary and the administration is praiseworthy and we believe will be crucial in restoring our rivers to the pristine nature they used to be in until about twenty or so years ago. Just how threatened these rivers have become is to be seen not only in the way grabbers have pounced on them but also by the amount of sludge -- polythene, effluents and other elements -- pushed into them by industries situated on the banks of these rivers.
We commend the move and expect that similar drives to free the Balu, Turag and other rivers will also be undertaken and pursued with equal vigour. However, we cannot but note with huge disappointment that in all this drive to recover the rivers canals have been left out. Canals being an essential component of Bangladesh's landscape and therefore significant where maintaining ecological balance is concerned should have been accorded the same degree of importance that is being applied in the matter of the rivers. It must be noted that along with the rivers, canals in and around the capital have been grabbed with impunity by real estate developers, who have not hesitated to move quickly with their housing projects into the area.
A key question which comes up here is why the administration has generally looked away from such encroachment. And if some real estate firms have indeed been permitted to take charge of canals and lakes, why is it that no one in the administration foresaw the grave damage about to be done to the environment? The canals flowing into the Balu are today as good as non-existent because real estate has swallowed them up. The canals of the Trimohoni are trapped in similar conditions. The wetlands which once were crisscrossed by canals in the west of Dhaka city have vanished because the canals feeding them do not happen to be there any more. And, of course, before our very eyes the Rayerbazar canal, Atir canal and Haikkar canal have been disappearing owing to the predatory instincts of land and water body grabbers.
The point here is that without an accompanying programme of recovering canals any project to reclaim rivers will remain incomplete. Canals have served as a source of unhindered movement for people for ages. The same holds true of rivers. And both have now fallen victim to human depredation. It is, therefore, our view (one we are certain we share with the citizens of this country) that a well-planned, focused and determined drive must be undertaken to recover all the canals that have gone into unscrupulous hands. Alongside that, let the drive to recover rivers as well as cleanse them of the waste dumped on their beds go on in full swing.