Reclaiming canals: Now or never

With the canal reclamation drive on the agenda of the interim government, one wonders whether it makes Dhaka dwellers at all optimistic about its success, given the decades of repeated failures to accomplish the task. Despite the undeniable benefits of reclaiming lost and threatened canals, urban experts remain sceptical due to the authorities' long history of inaction. Successive governments have pledged to take strict measures, yet tangible results remain elusive. The interim government's advisor for water resources, climate change, and environment, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, has announced an ambitious plan to reclaim nineteen canals across the capital this year by evicting encroachers. Of these, six canals-Baunia Canal, Rupnagar Canal, Begunbari Canal, Manda Canal, Kalunagar Canal, and Korail Lake-will be freed from encroachment and pollution before the upcoming monsoon. Speaking at the inauguration of the restoration works under Dhaka's two city corporations, the advisor also revealed plans to begin reclaiming 13 additional canals shortly. The government intends to introduce agricultural activities, greenery, and fish farming along the banks of the restored canals, while urging city dwellers to actively engage in the protection of these vital waterways. This time, the authorities seem more cautious than ever, acknowledging past failures and leveraging the advantage of being free from political influences. A key difference in this initiative is the level of inter-agency collaboration and community involvement, which was absent in previous efforts. For the first time, four ministries-Local Government, Environment, Water Resources, and Housing and Public Works-are jointly overseeing the project. Supporting entities include Dhaka WASA, Rajuk, the district administration, NGOs such as BAPA and Green Voice, and the Bangladesh Army. The plan involves demarcating canal boundaries, cleaning polluted waters, conserving canal banks, and integrating waste management and drainage systems.  The first phase of work covers 23.66 kilometres across six canals: Baunia Canal (7.19km), Rupnagar Canal (3.5km), Begunbari Canal (1.69km), and Karail Lake (2.45km). Manda Canal (4.37km) and Kalunagar Canal (4.46km). Subsequent phases will reclaim 13 additional canals, including Boalia, Dumni, Shyampur, and Satarkul.  A contemporary had reported some time ago that 39 canals in and around Dhaka have totally disappeared. Those that are still alive are mostly in the grip of influential quarters. Besides, due to construction of roads and walkways on both sides of the canals, there is hardly any space left to maintain them to allow discharge of water. On the other hand, unplanned urbanisation has led to the building of box culverts over the canals, an act believed to be instrumental in killing the vital arteries of the capital. According to the Dhaka WASA, until 1985, the capital had 54 canals and most of those were interlinked making their ultimate journey towards the four rivers around the city. It is not at all difficult to detect how most of them got lost or buried and the nature of hindrance that rendered them so. All it takes, according to the experts, is political will - one that we happen to experience only occasionally. In fact, it doesn't require an expert to bring home the importance of canals in rescuing Dhaka from the dreadful water logging and a host of other attendant problems and public sufferings. However, help from the experts is necessary to identify the routes of the canals lost to human greed and misdeeds. Professor Ainun Nishat, noted environmentalist, in an interview with a local daily, commented that tracing the routes of the canals can easily be done from documents, including the length and breadth of each and every canal. The Dhaka district administration can play a lead role in this. Most of the canals are 'owned' by the district authority. The Dhaka WASA is in charge of maintaining about two dozens of canals, the remaining few are virtually 'orphans' with no single agency assigned to maintain them. Another renowned urban expert Professor Nazrul Islam commented that the only way we can hope to recover the lost canals and maintain those is through enacting a law.   Experts emphasise that once the reclamation work is completed, a long-term maintenance and monitoring plan must be in place to prevent future encroachment and degradation. Local communities should be actively involved in keeping the canals clean and functional. Awareness campaigns, legal enforcement, and community participation should go hand in hand to make this initiative a lasting success. Without a structured maintenance strategy, Dhaka risks falling back into the same cycle of negligence and destruction, rendering the entire effort futile. Canals in many big cities are life-lines potentially capable of cleansing the cities from dirt and garbage in a natural way-- besides flashing out rain waters as well as containing flash floods to a great extent. In Thailand's capital Bangkok, canals crisscrossing the city are also a treat for the eyes. The clean flow of water, courtesy of painstaking maintenance, is a good enough respite for the city dwellers amid the city's din and bustle. In traffic-choked Dhaka, canals could also be an alternative mode of travel for commuters, provided such a scheme is well designed and strictly enforced. But before we indulge in such wishful daydreams, we must see the canals first.

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