Dying rivers
THERE is a close link between economic growth, human development and good management of natural resourcesmainly water bodies and forests. Unfortunately, socio-economic development appears threatened by environmental degradation through polluted water and extinction of forests.
Despite an overall improvement in the living standard marked by fast paced urbanisation, the outlook for sustainable development in big cities is not encouraging. The gains are being offset by growing scarcity of fresh water and the rise in the number of impoverished people.
Reports published in the dailies indicate that Buriganga has become polluted beyond redemption. The dissolved oxygen level is well below 4 mg per litre, the minimum requirement for the survival of any aquatic life forms.
The river receives an estimated 4,50,000 cubic metres of waste water per day through only three pointsHazaribagh tanneries, Dolaikhal and the Pagla sewage treatment plant. This consumes about 40 tons of dissolved oxygen per day from the river water. About 33 crore cubic metres of waste are being dumped into rivers and lakes of Dhaka city and its adjoining areas.
Only about one third of the city has the luxury of an underground sewer system. In most places human excreta flow directly into open surface drains that ultimately fall into the rivers. Even refuse, along with other hazardous wastes, dumped on the riverbank finds its way into the river Buriganga during seasonal floods.
About 200 tanneries pump out about 16,000 cubic metres of hazardous liquid wastes, Tejgaon industrial area offloads about 4,000 cubic metres of polluted liquid wastes and other agencies about 3,000 cubic metres of waste into the Buriganga everyday.
In most of the localities household drains connect to the sewer pipes, which also collect surface garbage. Consequently, the entire untreated mess then drains into the river that supplies the city with its drinking water. Contaminated even further by oil from barges and vessels, the river is so polluted that cleansing by surging rainwater has become almost impossible.
The biggest onslaught has come from the encroachment of river-banks and the river itself. Even supermarkets have been built several hundred feet into the river from its original bank line. Hundreds of acres of riverbed have fallen into the hands of encroachers. There is no difference of opinion, no conflict, and a strange unanimity among all groupslocals, political leaders, officials, housing estates, business groups, sand traders, religious groups and even private universities.
This is quite visible when we look at the encroachment of the Turag or Balu or Buriganga. With a BIWTA jetty situated close to the area of encroachment near Amin Bazar, how could a developer fill up the river and start selling plots?
If it was the result of a compromise reached between the developer and the BIWTA officials visiting the site for investigation, then how could the high-ups in the administration turn a blind eye to such grabbing incidents? If such shady deals continue to haunt the country even during this government, which assumed power with firm pledges to bring changes in political culture and the prevailing ill practices, then the Turag, Balu and even Buriganga will disappear.
Without a concerted effort by all concernedthe administration, industries and the citizensit will be near impossible to reduce the pollution of the rivers around Dhaka. With the government and industries not investing in hazardous waste removal plants, the volume of effluents is growing exponentially.
Antique foundries, industries and tanneries are functioning in complete disregard of environmental norms. Sewer pipes hardly work in old part of the city. In most cases, sewer lines lead to drains, which take the untreated sewage directly into the river, killing virtually all aquatic life and rendering the river water unsuitable for human use.
On the other hand, textile mills, dyeing industries and tanneries have destroyed land and ground water. The situation has come to such a pass that that there is no original water left in these rivers, only narrow streams of urban and industrial waste water that is pumped continuously into these glorified sewers.
The country's rivers have long had the capacity for self-purification, but with rivers drying up and waste water discharges increasing by the day the death of the rivers is the only possibility. Today these waters of life are becoming the rivers of disease, suffering and death.
The Gulshan-Banani-Baridhara and Uttara lakes have the same tale to tell. With land grabbers filling up the rivers and lakes on one side for commercial interest, and pollution and effluents discharged into them at will, these water bodies are almost dead. Rarely does anyone living in Dhaka and its satellite towns realise that there are rivers like Buriganga and Shitalakhya, let alone Turag and Balu.
If a city has a memory, the Thames would be always a part of London's eternal psyche. For Paris so would the Seine be. For Toronto, it is lake Ontario, for Chicago lake Michigan. And for New York, the river Hudson, and for Nainital in India, Lakhmi Tal lake, which was a decrepit wetland before being brought to life by Aradhana Shukla, a young enigmatic district magistrate of Nainital in India in 2001. Dubey, a district magistrate of Jhansi, who, instead of marshalling government resources, turned to the public for cleaning lake Placid.
Alas! It is not the same for Dhaka, though the river Buriganga still exists and flows by it. Dhaka is defined by the Buriganga. What is Dhaka without Buriganga? Conscious Dhakaites, mindful of Dhaka's significance, have always wondered what this ageless river must have once looked like and what they could do to save it from total extinction.
In the absence of clear foresight, vision and proper planning, Dhaka city has turned into a cluster of apartments and markets. With the last remaining open spaces and water bodies fast disappearing due to illegal encroachment and willful destruction, the city has become a concrete jungle with hardly any open space for breathing and walking in.
Happily, at a time when the grabbing of wetlands, rivers and lakes is the "mantra" of wealth creation, the media is jolting the government to take a hard look at the havoc encroachers have wrought. The recent move to grab Turag and Shitalakhya by some developers speaks volumes about their greed, ruthlessness and defiance of law and authority.
With government agencies busy in passing the buck, it seems that the government machinery has failed to crack down on polluters and greedy grabbers. In such a pathetic situation, the people have to wake up and resist such sinister designs. Protest and rallies must hammer out the problems of inaction on such issues that pose a direct threat to the citizens' lives.
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