Dhaka, the country’s ever expanding capital city, would soon become uninhabitable, if encroachment of rivers, canals and wetland in and around the city continues at the present pace, a top urban planner has warned.
Sarwar Jahan, president of Bangladesh Institute of Planners, feared there would be no wetland in Dhaka metropolitan area by the year 2035, causing a severe crisis of water-logging, temperature rise and destruction of biodiversity.
Speaking at a roundtable discussion on Tuesday, Sarwar, who is also the head of urban and regional planning department of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, painted a grim future of the burgeoning metropolis, saying ‘Dhaka would soon become absolutely uninhabitable.’
‘Since the enactment of the open space and wetland conservation act in 2000, the rate of decreasing the wetland has not dropped, rather the rate of encroachment moved up faster as the act has never been enforced properly,’ he said.
The roundtable on ‘Inhabitable City: Necessity of and Tasks for Wetland and Open space’ was organised by Save the Environment Movement at the National Press Club in the capital.
In 1989, the BUET professor said, some 29 percent of the capital was wetland which decreased to 25 percent in 1999 and 17 percent in 2007. The rate of wetland decline did not lower in the mean time, he added.
To reach a solution, he suggested for immediate formulation of a comprehensive national policy for using each and every inch of land in the city. Local governments should be made responsible and accountable for implementing the policy and preservation of the rivers, canals and open spaces in and around the city, he said.
SEM policy analyst Syed Mahbubul Alam presented the keynote address with an 11-point proposal at the meeting presided over by SEM chairperson Abu Naser Khan.
Mahbubul alleged that the playgrounds, open spaces and wetland in the city are not only encroached by the private organisations and individuals, the government agencies including the Dhaka City Corporation also encroached them for different development purposes.
The Detailed Area Plan for the capital did not include specific guidelines for protecting the wetland and open spaces, he said, adding that this limitation should be overcome before its implementation.
The proposals of the meeting also included demarcation of the boundaries of wetland and open spaces in the city and reintroducing and expanding of waterways by reclaiming the rivers and canals.
Speakers at the roundtable also called for strict enforcement of the open space and wetland conservation act of 2000 to stop earth filling and encroachment of the wetlands, open space and playgrounds in the capital.
Shahnaz Haq Hussain, dean of Earth and Environmental Sciences faculty of Dhaka University, poet Lili Haque and green activist Maruf Rahman, among others, also took part in the iscussion.
