Strangling another river flow

Yet, nothing perhaps could beat the governmental double standards in matters of environmental conservation more poignantly than the earth work and river filling activities going in a part of the Turag river at Aminbazar. Bangladesh Power Grid Company (PGCB) working under the Power Development Board (PDB) has already filled up a 20-acre span of the river-bed. That it is a free-flowing river with a deep draught and a natural geomorphologic quality about it, is driven home by the fact that Tk 12 crore worth of earth had to be disgorged on to the 20 acres to level these up with the bank.

Clearly, they are in breach of the wetland conservancy act, one time too many because after all this law has been honoured more in breach than in compliance across the board. Rajuk's city development master plan had also tabooed construction at the site that apparently got selected for setting up the electricity substation violating standing rules. The PDB, Rajuk and the district administration have to answer for this at some level. How could an approval be given for the occupation of 20 acres of the river knowing full well that the location is in a flood zone. As it is, we have been losing natural water channels with reckless abandon which is why the peripheries of Dhaka city, even its interiors, are so vulnerable to flooding and water-logging these days.

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When the authorities themselves are in breach of environmental laws for all practical purposes, how can they have the moral right to enforce standards on other people?