The New Nation - Internet Edition

THE rivers around Dhaka city are dying posing a threat to the surrounding environment. A media report gives a horrifying picture of the pollution of all the rivers that surround the capital. People who founded the city 400 years ago were prudent enough to understand the economic and environmental importance of the rivers and their strategic significance. But now the same rivers that served as the arteries of the region for thousands of years are being neglected and destroyed.

Dhaka has a unique geographical location with four rivers encircling it from all sides. These rivers played a significant role in the development of Dhaka as an affluent city. Forming water routes navigable round the year, the rivers facilitated trade and commerce and the growth of industries. Land grabbers have now occupied significant parts of all the riverbeds reducing those into narrow streams of water. The rivers have greatly lost navigability. Due to dumping of wastes and industrial effluents, the water of the rivers has become so poisonous that aquatic organisms cannot survive there during the dry season.

More than 10 million inhabitants of Dhaka City depend mostly on ground water. Due to massive extraction of water, the water table is going down alarmingly. Yet water supply in the city is insufficient. Dhaka will have to depend on surface water to make up for the shortfall. And the nearby rivers will be the best and the cheapest sources. So, the rivers must be cleaned from pollution and recovered from illegal occupation. Mass awareness about the need to reclaim and restore the rivers must be created without any further delay. Rivers that have so far been treated as dumping grounds for all types of waste should be cleaned and protected for the best interests of the residents of the metropolis.