Editorial
Buriganga left in the lurch
Reclamation project yet to take-off
Saving the Buriganga river is vital to survival of the capital city. Yet ironically, two years into the much-talked about project to make Buriganga River pollution-free, it has hit a colossal snag. The nearly Tk.1000 crore project received financial allocation of Tk.100 crore over the last two years. It is hardly a wonder that a mere 5-6 per cent of the project has been completed.
Initiated back in 2009, the project envisioned to bring in fresh water to Buriganga to wash away the ever-increasing pollutants being dumped into the river. It involved dredging of a 162km stretch of water between Buriganga and Jamuna rivers and further dredging of 23km of the Pungli River. Pollution levels due primarily to indiscriminate dumping of untreated industrial-grade toxins into the river helped reach a situation whereby nine months out of a year it experienced zero oxygen level, which in other words made it a "dead" river.
Despite being touted as a priority project, the financing of such a resource-hungry project was not thought out clearly. The constant delays in providing allocation have now pushed the project deadline from June 2013 to June 2014. With this delay comes a huge escalation of dredging costs to the tune of Tk.500 crore. The project is yet another display of lack of project design and implementation. This sort of half-hearted attempt at redressing the serious issue of environmental degradation has not helped to mitigate the problems pollution has caused for Dhaka residents, particularly the issue of safe drinking water.
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