Editorial
Where the water runs black
Pollution killing Dhaka's rivers
The awful stench that is omnipresent in the capital's Trimohani where the Sitalakkhya, Turag and Balu rivers meet is testament to the fact that Dhaka's rivers are dying. What seems to be lost upon authorities is that without a healthy river system, the continued existence of the capital city of 15million citizens is threatened. Rivers do not provide us merely with fish to eat. They provide drinking water and a natural drainage system for the rainfall and waste generated by humans, ferrying of passengers and goods -- all essential prerequisites of a living city.
Yet, the cries of environmentalists and citizens' groups fall on deaf ears. They do not permeate those in authority who cower down before powerful interest groups headed by real estate and industry who openly flout the system through nefarious activities. The haphazard manner in which rivers are being filled up have reduced many of these rivers to a mere shadow of their former selves.
The indiscriminate dumping of untreated effluents by industries located near these rivers, particularly on the banks of the Buriganga have in effect raised pollution levels to the degree that no living organism may survive in these waters. And it is not merely the depletion of fish stocks that is at stake here, these rivers feed the water supply to the city, and in the ultimate analysis, it is the residents of Dhaka city who end up paying the biggest price for dirty water.
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