During a meeting on improving the water quality and environment of Buriganga River held at the Cabinet Division conference room of the Bangladesh Secretariat recently, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman directed the authorities concerned to prepare a time-bound action plan against pollution in the Buriganga and the other rivers surrounding Dhaka. The directive also envisages an inter-agency committee under the supervision of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). The Department of Environment (DoE), Dhaka WASA, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB), RAJUK, the two city corporations and district administration are to work together. Industrial effluents, poor sewerage and drainage, shrinking canals and mismanagement of solid waste were identified as the main culprits. So far so good. But Dhaka has seen many plans for saving its rivers before, only to watch the waters turn blacker and the banks narrower.
To understand what has been lost, one has to look back at how Dhaka came into being. The Buriganga, literally the Old Ganges, was not a water channel at the edge of the city; it was the basis of the city's growth. When the Mughals made Dhaka the provincial capital in the early seventeenth century, the river offered navigation, defence, communication and access to the trading routes of Bengal. Muslin and foodgrains moved through it, while its water served households and its fish sustained communities. Settlements, markets, warehouses, ghats and structures grew along its northern bank. Today, Sadarghat remains a gateway between the capital and riverine Bangladesh. In fact, before roads, flyovers and motor vehicles came to dominate the scene, the Buriganga was Dhaka's road, marketplace, water source and breathing space rolled into one.
But the same city that drew life from the Buriganga gradually began treating it as a drain. Unplanned urbanisation, encroachment and industrial expansion brought tanneries, dyeing units and chemical factories to its banks and catchment. Sewage, industrial effluent, biomedical waste, oil, plastic and household garbage then found the easiest way out through drains into the river. Relocation of the Hazaribagh tanneries removed one notorious source, but did not bring the Buriganga back to life. According to the World Bank, more than 80 per cent of Dhaka's untreated wastewater and sewage enter the interconnected waterways, while over half of the city's canals have disappeared or remain clogged. During the dry season, when fresh flow is meagre, the system carries little other than the waste generated by the metropolis.
Now, to treat such poisoning as merely an environmental problem would be to miss the wood for the trees. Dhaka is surrounded by the Buriganga, Turag, Balu and Shitalakkhya and was once crisscrossed by canals. Together they formed a natural drainage bowl for monsoon water. When canals are filled and outfalls choked, heavy rain turns roads and neighbourhoods into stagnant pools. Pollution further reduces flow and obstructs drainage. A restored river-and-canal network would, therefore, strengthen flood resilience, reduce waterlogging and help the city cope with heavier rainfall expected from climate change. No number of pumps can permanently compensate for destruction of the natural drainage system on which this deltaic city was built.
The issue is equally one of public health and social justice. People beside the rivers, especially the poor, are exposed to foul air and contaminated water and suffer from skin, respiratory and waterborne diseases. Polluted water also harms fish, livestock and crops and can enter into the human food chain. Meanwhile, dependence on groundwater puts pressure on the aquifers beneath Dhaka. Cleaner surface water would expand the city's future water-supply options, though it would require treatment. A living river could moderate the harshness of the concrete-dominated environment, support biodiversity and provide space for recreation. No wonder cities around the world spend generously to recover waterfronts they once neglected.
There is also an economic argument policymakers cannot ignore. Navigable rivers offer cheap transport for passengers and goods and can take pressure off Dhaka's congested roads. Clean riverfronts can revive boat services, fisheries, markets, tourism and small businesses and restore dignity to Old Dhaka. But erecting concrete structures, restaurants and decorative lights on the banks will not amount to river restoration. Nor can eviction of poor settlers be a substitute for action against encroachers and industrial polluters. The water has to be cleaned at source, the natural width and flow of the river protected and riverbanks kept accessible to the public. Otherwise, a cosmetic riverfront will only hide a sewer behind an attractive facade.
Notably, the country does not suffer from a shortage of laws, studies or grand plans. The Blue Network programme to restore four rivers and 22 canals is already on the books, and the World Bank approved US$370 million in February for sanitation, solid waste management and river restoration. So, the latest action plan should not become another layer of paperwork. It must bring existing initiatives under one measurable framework. Every pollution outlet should be mapped; every agency should have a responsibility, budget and deadline; and water-quality data should be made public in real time. An effluent treatment plant (ETP) that operates only during an inspection is of no use. Polluters must be made to pay without exception and not only when a mobile court happens to appear.
In this connection, factories should operate ETPs, while common treatment facilities are provided for clusters where individual plants are impractical. Sewerage, faecal-sludge management and door-to-door waste collection have to expand together. Drains and canals must be freed of illegal connections, waste and encroachment, with humane rehabilitation for vulnerable occupants. Dredging alone will not do, since it merely shifts toxic sediment unless the material is tested and safely disposed of. At the same time, freshwater flow, regular monitoring, heavier penalties for repeat offenders and prosecution without political favour are essential. Environmental organisations, universities, schools and riverbank communities should monitor progress, but the state cannot pass its regulatory duty on to volunteers.
The Prime Minister is right that failure now will leave the nation answerable to future generations. Yet the real test will begin after committee meetings, press briefings and preparation of the promised plan are over. The PMO should publish transparent quarterly progress reports and make agencies as well as polluters fully answerable for missed targets. The Buriganga and other rivers around the capital have to be restored not as part of beautification projects, but as the living drainage, transport and ecological system without which Dhaka cannot become a liveable city. In the final analysis, bringing the Buriganga back to life means giving Dhaka itself a real chance once again to breathe and survive.
