For saving the city water bodies

Uttara Lake: Like other water bodies in the city is refreshing but threatened

In our country, especially in Dhaka city, such water bodies as Gulshan-Baridhara lake and Uttara lake in the outskirts that still remain escaping human settlement and greed of the land grabbers are being polluted at will. Unhappily for the residents of Uttara, Gulshan and Baridhara and Badda, these water bodies are now a lifeless receptacle of human wastes. Uttara township that was once conceived to be a model town as per the original Master Plant has turned into a cluster of apartments, shopping malls, clinics and schools with densely packed surroundings. Added to this is the menacing proliferation of garments, dyeing and knitwear industries growing up cheek by jowl with residential houses. In absence of proper drainage system for disposal of the wastes, industry owners as well as residents drain out the waste water and other wastes into the Uttara lake.. Once a source of pure and transparent water, Uttara lake today is full of raw sewage and toxic waste.

For centuries, waters in lakes and rivers of this country have meant purity and life. But shockingly, poisoned waters in the Uttara or Gulshan lake now symbolise not life but death. Sadly true, there is little original water left in the Uttara lake, only narrow streams of sewage and industrial waste water that's pumped continuously into these glorified sewers. These waterbodies have long had the capacity of self-purification -- pollutants diluted and slowly absorbed -- but with the rivers like Balu and Turag that once flowed into these lakes now drying up because of indiscriminate encroachments near Ashulia and adjoining places and waste water discharges increasing by the day, the death of these lakes seems as the only possibility.

Uttara lake is a large water body, almost 5 km in length and 200m wide stretching from one end of the sector no.3 and running straight across the middle of sector nos. 5, 7, 13 and 11. It could have been, if properly preserved, a pure surface water source. Uttara is now a vast residential area inhabited by about 3 million elite citizens mostly comprising retired high level government officers, doctors, engineers, teachers of universities and colleges, lawyers and well-meaning businessmen. But in total violation of the original Master Plan because of the pressure mounted by say, ministers and high ups in the government, during the last 20 years, RAJUK allotted plots for housing to influential groups on spaces earmarked for market, play ground, parks and schools or even burial ground. With houses built cheek by jowl, the whole residential area looks macabre.

Irrational housing plan, absence of adequate sewer lines and most notably lack of urban vision and environmental concerns make a mockery of model town requirements. Precisely speaking, the grand plan of the visionaries of those days for Uttara has burst into an illusion. In the face of mounting protests by the conscious dwellers, encroachment attempts on the lake had stopped for some time. But it has again gained momentum. Defying the Supreme Court injunction of March 19, 2005 on the basis of a writ petition filed by BELA in matters of filling up the lake by some groups having backing from the high ups, filling of the lakeside in the same contentious plots has again started in sector no. 3. No sooner had these fake owners, based on unauthorised allotment started their work again in full gusto, local residents filed a G.D in Uttara Thana enclosing the Apex Court order but that complaint seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

With such encroachments of the lake going apace and waste water, garbage and piling materials finding way into the lake from different sectors, the bed of the lake has been raised. The lake that exists today by name only is just a cesspool of blackish stagnant water. Thanks to the enterprising efforts of some residents in the adjoining sectors, RAJUK completed the construction of a mini park with a 550 m long walkway in sector no. 13 by the side of the lake, covered by plantations of trees and flower plants undertaken by Dhaka Forestry Division. This seems to be the only breathing space for the residents of Uttara on the western side of the Dhaka-Tongi highway. But pathetically true, breathing has become difficult because of the horrible stench coming from the polluted toxic water of the lake.

The situation poses a major threat to the health of the children living amidst such unsanitary condition. One tends to believe that the vision of hell that urban Bangladesh has really become is mainly because development has taken place before planning.

Astoundingly, none and most notably our national leaders, many of whom reside in these areas, notice that they have allowed their housing areas to become a vast squalid wasteland with everyone closing his/her eyes to the importance of town planning. Unfortunately, protest rallies, human chain, media reports, editorial comments and columns pinpointing the abysmal work going unabated, specially in this so-called model town, have yielded no response from the authorities concerned.

Happily, records abound in stories that recount the role of lakes in creating the Indian history. Historians think that it is possible that the sound of gentle ripples softly lapping against pebbles may have lulled Rani Laxmi Bai into a reverie in which she saw an India throwing off the colonial yoke. The intrepid 19th century queen, the sword wielding icon of resistance to the British spent a great deal of time by the lake in Jhansi. The beauty of the place was invigorating since the shimmering water and lush greenery around captivated human imagination. But the Laxmi Taal, as the lake is known, was reduced to a cesspool covered by unyielding stretches of water hyacinth and wastes flowing into it from all directions. Rajneesh Dubey, district magistrate of Jhansi at the time took it upon himself to revitalise this historical water body that was later named as Lake Placid.

While on a tour to different regions of Jhansi district as Dubey stood on the banks of the lake, the foetid stench of the of rotting plants and solid waste made him realise the task he was to shoulder. Dubey, mindful of the lake's significance, wondered what the 175-year old lake must have once looked like and what he could do to save it. But aware of the fact that securing government fund to clean the lake would be difficult, he instead turned to the public to carry out the campaign early in 2002. Responding to his plan, traders, professionals, Bundelkhand University students and even housewives stepped forward as volunteers. Finance was not the issue at all as the local citizenry rose to the occasion. Petrol dealers provided fuel for the huge JCB machines that removed the slush and garbage, the Crushers Association supplied tractor trolleys and NGOs provided lunch packets for those at work. The government here worked as a facilitator.

The recovery of the lake was by no means an easy task as the discharge from about a dozen drains in the city had been emptying into the lake for decades. There is something more for us to learn if we ever set ourselves in recovering the Uttara or Gulshan lake considered by many as pristine possessions for this historical city. Dubey's work, away from our country may be inspiring and might revive the concept of community living in our environment that seems to be on the wane because of our entrenched self-interest in every pie. As it appears today, whether it is an environmental disaster, a calamity, a dowry death or even taps running dry, we are used to seeing a Bangladesh buckling under. With outstretched hands lamenting the lack of government largesse, we take everything as fait accompli. That mindset has to be changed.

The failure of the government's development efforts clearly has more to do with systems and less with resources. There must be some people around us or some enterprising individuals like Dubey who pioneered the work for the revival of the Lake Placid or Aradhana Shukla eloquently named for recovery of Naini Taal Lake in Uttaranchal in India who can lead the transformation of the area from urban chaos to a model township. The current system underestimates the community's ability to contribute. Finance is not the issue. More important is participation, for them to see that things can be changed. Precisely speaking, Uttara lake or Gulshan Baridhara lake or even the river Buriganga can be revived by community participation. This is true at a time when politics is defined and understood as nothing beyond elections and the art of cobbling a majority.

There are very few opportunities available within this system for bringing about basic change. Which is why disenchanted people are turning to community initiatives. Citizens are indeed stepping out. In a departure from the past, Uttara residents aren't resigning to their fate. Worsening civic and environmental conditions and lack of civic amenities have nudged citizens across the region out of their slumber. With Uttara Association, the central body representing sector Kalyan Samities, as the nodal agency, 'Uttara Lake Bachao Andolan' committee formed in December, 2005 have launched massive awareness campaign to jolt communities and public leaders to action. Could there be someone from the industrial conglomerates, banks, business community, NGOs and public leaders who would come forward to save these water bodies, the essence of life in a polluted city? If RAJUK, Dhaka City Corporation and WASA, the trio individually or together cannot cope with the enormous task with their own resources then they should invite such public participation, themselves remaining as facilitators, as they did for the beautification work of the city on the eve of the SAARC Summit.

Md Asadullah Khan is a former teacher of physics and Controller of Examinations, BUET. He can be reached at asad_k@bangla.net