Bid to Clean Gulshan-Baridhara Lake
10-day drive starts
A team of government officials along with local community leaders launched a ten-day drive for cleaning the Gulshan-Baridhara Lake yesterday.
Six government officials trained under Management at the Top (MAT) workshop have undertaken the participatory drive as a pilot project to make it sustainable, said Rawnak Mahmud, convener of the cleaning programme.
The drive launched from Baridhara Lake Park continued for a one-kilometre stretch of the Gulshan-Baridhara Lake up to road No 80 near Kalachandpur.
The first phase of the project will continue until end of December and the second phase will be run through January to June 3, said Mahmud, executive officer of Dhaka City Corporation zone-9.
Some eight workers will be appointed during the second phase to guard and clean the said stretch of the lake. Private waste collectors have agreed to collect the lakeside wastes dumped in bins.
Thirteen local community organisations will bear the cost worth Tk 65,000 to carry out the drive.
Major General (retd) Amin Ahmed Chowdhury, convener of Gulshan Society (zone-6), said it was inspiring to see the government officials taking an initiative with the local people in such a public service.
“I am hopeful that the move will sustain and the community will extend cooperation, as the government and the locals will work together,” he said.
A total of 55 house owners have been identified as illegally connecting their sewage lines with the surface drains that directly release into the lake.
Leaders of the drive will hold a meeting with the landlords of Gulshan and Baridhara on January 7 and request them to stop releasing domestic sewages into the surface drainage system.
Officials of deputy secretary and joint secretary ranks since 2005 have been taking part in the MAT workshops funded by DFID and Bangladesh government to receive training on innovative and reformative ways of doing public service.
The MAT workshops are aimed at working in five broad areas of socio-economic welfare ultimately to facilitate achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, said Rawnak.
