Dhaka losing its water bodies

Water is the lifeline for any city. Dhaka is no exception. The land needed to retain water in ponds in three principal areas of the city, i.e. Dholaikhal, Kaliyanpur and Goran Chatbari are sadly inadequate. Experts estimate that in Dholaikhal and Kalyanpur areas, 105 and 514 acres of ponds are required and the land available there is 3.5 and 171 acres respectively. Retention of water is essential for a number of reasons. Without these water bodies, there is no place for storm water to go, preventing downstream erosion and basically improving the water quality in an adjacent river, stream, lake or bay becomes impossible. In a city of 16 million residents who experience heavy downpour every year, water logging remains a major hazard because drainage systems cannot pump out excess water to retention areas due to lack of retention areas.

We did not arrive at this situation in a day. Successive city corporations have come and gone and little heed was paid to acquiring lands that would be reserved for water bodies such as ponds. Yes, Dhaka has grown at an unprecedented rate and city planners have failed to address the problems associated with unplanned urbanisation and not only were new land not acquired, existing water bodies such as lakes and ponds were allowed to be encroached upon to make way for housing and industrial plots.

Today, WASA is unable to meet the water demand of a major portion of the city and the water that is pumped into homes is often not fit for human consumption. Unless we are willing to go tough against land-grabbers to protect what little retention areas we have and actively reclaim the lost canals the capital may face a severe water crunch as well as inundation.