Canals must be kept on course to resolve waterlogging in Ctg City

Syeda Rizwana Hasan, Adviser for environment and water resources at an opinion exchange meeting at the Theatre Institute, Chattogram on aasunday. PID

Chittagong, Sunday, January 19, 2025: Advisor to the Ministry of Water Resources and Environment, Forest and Climate Change Syeda Rizwana Hasan said that the canals of the city must be kept on their natural course to resolve waterlogging in Chittagong city. Canal encroachers must be brought under the law and made to face strict accountability. She said, "Yesterday we went to see a boundary. What we saw in the canal is that you are completing the base of the canal. You cannot do this."

She said these things as a special guest at a view-sharing meeting organized by the Divisional Commissioner's Office, Chittagong, to resolve waterlogging in Chittagong city at the conference room of Chittagong Circuit House this (Sunday) afternoon.

Referring to legal obstacles, the water resources advisor said that canals are not supposed to be recorded in the name of an individual. The canal is recorded in the name of the person, the person has built a house. Now the government will pay money for the demolition of this house. Again, it will compensate that person. All this is public money. The advisor said, instructing the concerned, mark the boundaries of the canals now. Marking the boundaries of canals in Bangladesh is a very expensive matter. When we asked to mark the boundaries of the river. They will mark the boundaries with cement blocks, this will be done by the party contractors. When the party contractors gave the wrong boundaries, we environmentalists stopped them. And then we were blamed. Again, the concerned organization also gave money to those who determined the wrong boundaries. Later, they also gave money to those who made the boundaries.

The water resources advisor also said, you will go to Patiya, a little far from here, next to Chittagong city, and you will see that there is no water in 5 villages. You are giving these canals in the name of individuals, and we are evicting them, and again, we are giving compensation to them. But in all these cases, the land administration should be held accountable. Again, government land has to be acquired, and again, the land has been occupied by a person because of your record, and the government has to acquire it by paying three times the compensation. He said, the Water Resources Advisor has instructed the concerned to issue instructions so that the regulator does not become narrower than the width of the canal.

Chittagong Divisional Commissioner Dr. Md. Ziauddin chaired the exchange meeting. Muhammad Fawzul Kabir Khan, Advisor for Power, Energy, Railways and Road Transport, delivered the speech as the chief guest, while Farooq E Azam, Disaster Management and Relief Advisor, Bir Pratik, and Mayor of Chittagong City Corporation Dr. Shahadat Hossain delivered the speech as the special guest. At the exchange meeting, river expert Fayez Ahmed Tayeb presented the work process to resolve waterlogging in Chittagong city within the next four months. Water Resources Secretary Nazmul Ahsan, Director of the Waterlogging Resolution Project Brigadier General Shams and Chittagong Deputy Commissioner Farida Khanam spoke at the meeting. Among the prominent people of Chittagong who spoke at the meeting were Professor Sikandar Khan, President of the Planned Chittagong Forum, Syed Mahmudul Haque, Trustee of Chittagong Independent University, Moinul Islam, former Professor of Chittagong University, Jahidul Karim Kochi, Chittagong Bureau Chief of Amar Desh Patrika, Architect Jerin, President of Greater Chittagong Development Committee SM Nurul Haque, Politician SM Fazlul Haque, etc.

It is worth noting that Director General of Water Development Board A, K, M, Tahmidul Islam, Administrator and Joint Secretary of Chittagong WASA Anwar Pasha and high-ranking officials of the Water Development Board were present at the meeting. - Press Release