Rivers continue to be killed
Nothing has so far happened to convince us that encroachment and pollution of the major rivers around Dhaka have been checked. It is inexplicable as to why, despite the concerns consistently raised by the media, by experts, by civil society, by citizens and by the government, work on reclaiming the endangered rivers has not progressed to satisfaction.
The problems have not only persisted but have also worsened owing to the reluctance or inability of the authorities to follow through on the repeated calls for reclamation of the rivers. A case in point is the cleaning up of the Buriganga, where the efforts seem to have floundered. Worse, not even the directives issued by the High Court on 25 June 2009 to the government about necessary action over the issue have been implemented.
This newspaper has, in the interest of the public, not only carried incisive reports on the condition of the rivers but also played a pivotal role in a campaign for those rivers to be reclaimed. It now appears that all such efforts have gone in vain because of the obvious lip service given to this grave national issue. It is indeed ironic that when the Buriganga, Sitalakhya, Turag and Balu rivers are in immediate need of restoration, the government has been spending time on planning linkages of Dhaka's river systems with the Jamuna at a staggering cost of Tk. 944 crore. Such plans would have been taken in the right spirit had serious measures first been taken about putting an end to the pollution and encroachment of rivers around Dhaka.
It is a pity that despite the PM's directive, things have gotten worse. We demand that as a first move, a committee of experts must immediately be constituted to go into the task of implementing the HC directives on the issue, and that the cleaning drive taken up in a more planned manner and followed through. It is inconceivable that legal orders would be ignored with impunity. Besides, it is not morally right that things should always begin with a bang and always end with a whimper.
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