Dhaka did not grow out of concrete. It grew out of water.

For generations, the rivers Buriganga, Turag, Balu and Shitalakshya shaped the city’s economy, culture, and daily life. Boats carried goods and people across a thriving delta network. Markets rose along riverbanks. Agriculture depended on seasonal flows. Water was not a backdrop—it was the foundation.

That foundation is now eroding.

The rivers still exist, but they are no longer what they were. In many stretches, the water runs black, thick with waste, carrying a smell that signals distress long before it is seen. What is unfolding is not a temporary environmental problem. It is the slow unmaking of a river system that once sustained one of South Asia’s great cities.