Rajshahi City Corporation to preserve 53 ponds

Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) has decided to conserve 53 natural ponds in the city to retain its surface water resources for protecting the environment from further degradation.

The city corporation has adopted a Tk 206.24 crore project titled "Natural Water Bodies Conservation and Development in Rajshahi City" to attain its goal.

Rajshahi City Corporation Mayor Mosaddek Hossain Bulbul said the project has been adopted to mitigate the adverse impact of climate change. He hoped that the project would get approval from the government as soon as possible.

Ashraful Haque, chief engineer of RCC, told the news agency that under the project, 53 ponds of the city, at least one or more in the city's 30 wards, would be preserved and for this purpose 98 acres of land would be acquired.

Besides necessary excavation and re-excavation, embankments of the ponds would be made concrete under the project, he added.

He said no one would be allowed to fill up the ponds.

Ashraful Haque said there were 729 ponds and canals in the metropolis in 2002 but the number of those water bodies dwindled to 393 at present due to filling up and unplanned urbanisation.

As surface water level has been declining at an alarming rate, dependence on groundwater has increased lowering the level of groundwater table in the last couple of years, he said.

The situation worsens during the dry season leaving most of the manual tube wells useless.

“We have no other choice but to conserve surface water resources to keep the level of groundwater table intact,” said the engineer.

He hoped that successful implementation of the project would lead to improvement in fish production along with protection of endangered species of fishes.

He further viewed that the preserved water bodies would provide firefighters with water in extinguishing any fire incident in the city.