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Illegal River Pillars

District admins have no answers

Staff Correspondent
Environmentalists and social activists yesterday came down heavily on the administration of four districts for setting up boundary pillars, excluding foreshores, along the rivers that surround the capital.
The four rivers -- Buriganga, Balu, Turag and Shitalakkhya — were being demarcated along the water flow line of the lean season, in violation of a High Court judgement in2009, they said at a view-exchange meeting.
Following a The Daily Star-Channel i media campaign and a writ petition filed to save the Dhaka rivers from mindless grabbing and pollution, the HC in June 2009 ordered the Dhaka, Narayanganj, Gazipur and Munshiganj district administration to follow Cadastral Survey of 1913, and Revised Survey of 1983, to ascertain the original positions of the rivers and demarcate those, including foreshores.
Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) organised the meeting at its office on how to prevent river pollution and encroachment.
The speakers strongly demanded that the rivers be demarcated along the highest level that water reaches in monsoon.
Representatives of the deputy commissioners' offices of Dhaka and Narayanganj at the meeting, however, could not give any satisfactory reply to the allegations.
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Sharif Jamil, joint secretary of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon, said, "Many pillars are seen in the middle of the rivers. It seems the government is legitimising river encroachers."
In response, Mahbubul Islam, Narayanganj additional deputy commissioner, said a change in water flow over the decades could be one of the reasons behind that.
Addressing the function, BIWTA Chairman Shamsudduha Khandaker said they had identified as many as 138 channels through which waste was being dumped into the four rivers.
"We hope to seal off the channels by next 10 to 12 months to protect the rivers," he said.
Superintending Engineer Shahid Uddin of Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority said they were thinking about installing five sewage treatment plants in Dhaka city with the assistance of the World Bank to treat human waste.
Dhaka Wasa also has a plan to introduce compact treatment plants at the meeting points of canals and rivers so that water of these canals gets treated before entering the rivers, he added.