DNCC to plant 200,000 trees to reduce heat in Dhaka

The tree planting programme will be implemented under a contract the DNCC signed with a US-based foundation

The Dhaka North City Corporation will plant 200,000 trees in two years in a bid to cool the environment in Dhaka, Mayor Atiqul Islam said.

“I solicit the assistance of every neighbourhood. I look forward to receiving help from the teachers in schools and universities. This is to ensure that the trees and plants are not uprooted once they are planted. We should take care of the trees and plants and maintain them as an asset for our future generation,” the mayor said at an event at Dhaka University on Wednesday.

The DNCC and Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center signed a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday. Under the MoU, both organisations will jointly work to reduce heat in Dhaka.

Mayor Atiqul’s daughter Bushra Afreen has been appointed as the ‘chief heat officer’ to run the programme.

The DNCC will introduce awareness-building programmes for the people and other initiatives, the mayor said as he explained how temperatures in Dhaka would be reduced. The authorities already initiated some environment-friendly programmes, he said.

“We’re encouraging people to do rooftop gardening. We’ve installed 40,000 LED lights in Dhaka to reduce power consumption. Also, 29 canals will be freed from encroachment.”

After the Lautala canal was recovered from encroachers, DNCC planted 2,000 trees on its banks, the mayor said. They also recovered 18 bighas of land in Kalshi and an open park will be built there.

“We also introduced an open child-friendly public space in Mirpur,” he said.