Boundary pillars on river banks by March 15

The government has decided to start construction of boundary pillars on the banks of the rivers that run around the capital within next March 15. A high-powered taskforce on river recovery in its fourth meeting held at the shipping ministry yesterday finalised the decision.

The committee asked the deputy commissioners of Dhaka, Narayanganj, Gazipur and Munshiganj to start building pillars on riverbanks, leases of which have been either cancelled or lifted in a bid to initiate tree plantation. The meeting also decided to restore 13 canals in Dhaka and asked the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) to identify them for re-excavation. The taskforce, headed by Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan, also formed a committee to protect rivers from further pollution through raising mass awareness.

The meeting decided to strengthen the current drive to remove garbage from the bed of the Buriganga river. Among others, land minister Rezaul Karim Hira, state minister for environment and forest Hasan Mahmud, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the shipping ministry Nur-e-Alam Chowdhury, lawmakers Mustafa Jalal Mohiuddin, Nasim Osman, Begum Sanjida Khanaand Sara Begum Kobori and the DCs of four districts were present in the meeting. The shipping minister later told reporters that river banks would be demarcated and pillars would be set up. "Some unauthorised structures built on and into the rivers have already been demolished following court orders. The space thus cleared will be planted with different species of trees from March," said the minister.

The plantation programme will be implemented with funding from the environment and forest ministry. He said, 13 of the 24 Dhaka canals which had been lost to freestyle encroachment by land grabbers have been earmarked by the task force for reclamation. Dhaka WASA has been asked to present the maps and designs of the canals in the next meeting of the sub-committee for taking necessary decision for recovery of the lost water bodies. On continued dumping of waste and polythene bags in the Buriganga alongside the current cleaning of the river-bed, the minister said, "We're amending the environmental law to prohibit further dumping of waste into the river. The lawbreakers will not be spared."

-The Independent