Capital’s sewage lines illegally connected to lakes and canals are polluting waterbodies

Around 85 per cent of houses in the capital’s Gulshan, Baridhara, Niketan and Banani areas have their sewerage lines connected to nearby lakes and canals, polluting water bodies, reveals an assessment. Unicef and EQMS Consulting Limited jointly conducted the assessment in the four neighbourhoods in October and November last year.

According to the assessment, sewerage lines of 3,265 out of 3,830 houses are connected to canals, lakes or Dhaka North City Corporation’s (DNCC’s) surface drains, which are only meant for collecting water from rainfall and kitchens for later use. Besides, the assessment found that out of 1,166 houses in Banani, 1,023 are connected to lakes and surface drains. In Baridhara, 342 of 550 houses have no sewerage lines connected to Wasa. In the Gulshan West area, 791 of 864 houses have illegal connections. In the Gulshan East area, there are no separate sewerage lines for 736 of 818 houses. In Niketan, 373 of 432 houses are also dumping waste ignoring the rules.

Referring to the assessment, DNCC Mayor Atiqul Islam said the city corporation will not allow anyone to dump waste into lakes and surface drains. Many houses are illegally connected to surface drains, which makes it difficult for the corporation to use the collected water for fish farming. Furthermore, this situation leads to mosquitoes proliferating. During the drive, the sewerage lines of two houses were sealed up for dumping waste into lakes and surface drains. The waste of the two houses is supposed to be dumped through a separate line of Wasa. It is advisable for residents to check if their water line is properly connected.

It is astonishing to note that only one percent of houses in the above-mentioned four areas of the capital city have a safe sanitation system. Sewage flowing into local lakes and canals leads to the water getting polluted.

Urban governance in Dhaka and other cities has lack of coordination among the service delivery bodies and accountabilities. Unless improving the governance and transparency, no system will be there and no improvement will be achieved.