No alternative to saving water bodies, greenery to make Dhaka livable - Rizwana

Syeda Rizwana Hasan,

Dhaka, February 2: Syeda Rizwana Hasan, Advisor to the Ministry of Water Resources and Environment, Forest and Climate Change, said, if Dhaka is to be livable, we have no alternative but to save Dhaka's water bodies and save greenery. She said, Dhaka cannot be saved if water bodies are not saved. If Dhaka's canals are truly made pollution-free, they will act as a buffer zone.

The advisor said these things in a speech as the chief guest at a dialogue titled 'Re-Wet Dhaka' at the Krishibid Institution in the capital today on the occasion of World Wetlands Day.

The advisor said, on behalf of the government, we have taken initiatives to make 19 canals of Dhaka city free from encroachment and pollution. The sad thing is that even in 53 years, an effective sewage management system has not been developed in this city. The canals have been severely polluted.

If you dig a dead canal, you can find mattresses, pillows, plates, and buckets.

We cannot change this overall picture in a year or a half, but we can show the way to a solution. The involvement of the local people is very important in this regard. Just as vegetables are cultivated on the banks of lakes or canals, the environment there will be good, it will also meet the food demand to a large extent.

Advisor Rizwana Hasan sincerely greeted all the participants in the program and said that you should not be workers, but rather come to the position of leadership. She said, I thank RAJUK for the first time that RAJUK has taken up the task of rescuing a bill. The bill is like 9 acres. A housing company is selling a plot in Keraniganj by filling it. This is the first time that RAJUK has taken up the task of rescuing a bill. We will try to set an example by working within the limited time we have. The advisor also said that we must be careful not to be moved from our path by using false economic arguments. We will overcome many obstacles together.

Advisor Syeda Rizwana Hasan inaugurated the Re-Weath project website at the beginning of the program. Major General (Retd.) Siddiqur Rahman Sarkar, Chairman of the Capital Development Authority (RAJUK), Nayoka Martinez-Backstrom, First Secretary for Environment and Climate Change at the Embassy of Sweden, journalist Iftekhar Mahmud, and ASM Marjan Noor, Advisor on Climate and Environment at the British High Commission in Dhaka, spoke as special guests in the dialogue.

The Re-Weath project was also supported by Reversing Environmental Degradation in Africa and Asia (RIDA), the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), and UK International Development. The consortium members include the University of Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam University, Smith College, Nagar Abad, Youthnet for Climate Justice, and Prachash Foundation.

It is worth noting that “Re-Wet” is a research-based initiative funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, led by the University of Sheffield and Bangladesh’s River and Delta Research Consultants. Under this, work is being done to restore a part of Dhaka’s Gulshan-Banani Lake. – PID Handout