An NGO team in a visit yesterday found grabbers have been filling the whole Atir Khal (canal) and its adjoining vast wetlands in Basila of the city.
The team of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (Bapa) also found Dumini canal in Khilkhet is being filled and narrowed at many points for different housing projects.
Bapa general secretary Abdul Matin led the team during its visit to the two canals and the river Turag from 10:00am to 2:00pm to inspect the water bodies’ present condition.
The team discovered Atir Khal is almost dead due to unabated earth filling that has been going on in violation of wetland and open space protection act 2000.
Bapa team later inspected the Turag river from Amin Bazar to Tongi Bridge and found a vast portions of the river in Amin Bazar have been encroached by sand traders.
The bridges from Amin Bazar to Tongi except Amin Bazar Bridge were also found too low, which will hinder movement of water transports in the circular waterway.
The encroachment as well as dumping industrial waste was going on at different points of the Turag narrowing the river and polluted it severely, according to Bapa.
Bapa team’s visit to Dumini canal disclosed that the canal has been as narrow as a drain at different points, as it was filled with earth for different housing projects unceasingly.
Upon the visits, Bapa yesterday held a news conference at Civil Engineering Building in the city to demand protecting of the three water bodies against land grabbers.
The environment organisation also demanded that the height of the bridges from Amin Bazar to Tongi on the Turag River be raised for smooth movement of water transports.
The Bapa team was constituted of its joint secretaries JK Boral, Sharif Jamil, and Alamgir Kabir, Prof Shahidul Islam of Dhaka University, and Ifma Hossain of Piece.
Courtesy of The Daily Star
