Boundary complications stall Dhaka North’s plans to recover canals, retention pond

A project to recover 29 canals under Dhaka North City Corporation and a retention pond in Kalyanpur has run into roadblocks from the very beginning over the issue of boundaries.

If the canals cannot be recovered following the plan, water flow will be hampered, says Mayor Atiqul Islam, while land owners have sent at least 700 letters to the city corporation, asking it to remove demarcation pillars.

Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority or WASA handed the canal and drainage system to the city corporation in December 2020.

When the city corporation moved to recover the canals, it found illegal structures, including some belonging to the government, all over the canals. Boundary pillars were also set up incorrectly.

The city corporation then took up a project to demarcate the canals and the pond, put boundary pillars, identify land-grabbers and make a database for the water bodies.

The 14 Independent Engineers Brigade of the army and an ad-hoc supervision consultant are implementing the project with an estimated cost of Tk 270 million.

The work was supposed to be complete throughout 2022, but the deadline was extended two times to Dec 31, 2023 due to boundary complications.

For example, three pillars set up in line with the CS records are now located inside Bangladesh-Korea Technical Training Centre or BKTTC – one at a student hostel and the two others at residences of its officials.

And a part of Kalyanpur Kha canal now houses the Gabtoli construction yard of the metro rail project.

According to a report submitted to the mayor on the progress until March, the pond’s boundary could not demarcated completely while the cadastral survey records of three canals in Kalyanpur, Rupnagar Arambagh Canal, Baishteki Canal, Sangbadik Colony Canal, Kosaibari Canal, Mohakhali Canal and Uttara Diabari Canal could not be found.

The banks of some other canals are not suitable for setting up pillars.

A project official said they found most of the canals have been encroached on by individuals and government and private organisations. “Recovering the canals has become a challenging job.”

He said huge preparations were necessary to recover the canals as multi-storied buildings have been built on them. “It’s difficult to set up boundary pillars without removing these structures.”

In a meeting chaired by the mayor in April, the authorities decided to put the pillars where there are no problems first.

“All the canals have been filled,” said Atiqul.

He said they wanted to demarcate the canals following CS records as per a High Court order on the demarcation of rivers.

“We must follow the CS records if we want to free Dhaka from waterlogging and make the canals suitable for boats.”

The mayor said they set up 565 out of 1,910 pillars. “If we can’t set up all the pillars, we won’t be able to leave something for our next generation.”