Following the Dhaka’s comprehensive Detailed Area Plan (DAP) in 2010, people were hopeful about preservation of wetlands around the city. It was not just a matter of environmental concern. The wetlands were essential for the survival of the city of more than 15 million people. Nine years after the mega plan to save the city, two recent studies titled ‘The state of encroached wetlands in Dhaka and its surroundings’ and ‘Filling wetlands in Savar region’ show that the reign of the land grabbers are still on.
Last Thursday’s report says each year, 2,500 acres of wetlands under the jurisdiction of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK) are disappearing from Dhaka Metropolitan Development Project (DMDP) area. As many as 165 acres of water bodies, 215 acres of water retention areas and 2,120 acres of flood flow zones have been gobbled up.
In the past one decade, 22 per cent of the wetlands have been filled up in the DAP area. As many as 22,516 acres have been grabbed out of total 100,337 acres of wetlands. This is not an assumption. The image of the land grabbing was tracked down through satellite pictures comparing the DAP’s 2010 map and satellite images obtained in 2019.
According to the study, despite the DAP in 2010, 16 per cent of flood flow zones, 73 per cent of water retention areas and 7 per cent of water bodies were filled up. As many as 2,360 acres of wetlands in Gazipur, 6,786 acres in Rupganj, 5,689 acres in Keraniganj, and 3,483 acres in Dhaka city area have also been filled up. Also, another survey of RAJUK shows 2,403.34 acres of wetlands on the banks of Turag river have been grabbed.
In 2000, ten years before the DAP, grabbing wetland was also banned under the wetland preservation law. According to the law, the rivers, canals, beels (large water bodies), lakes, falls, flood flow zones and water retention areas cannot be distorted. RAJUK is responsible to oversee the matter. But, the land grabbers in collaboration with some of the RAJUK’s officials and local administration are grabbing the wetlands. If they are involved in such scams, then who will bell the cat?
Amid the terrible picture of wetland grabbing, some positive news has also been cropped up. The country’s apex court has declared illegal the Metro Makers Limited’s Madhumati Housing Project, 15 years after a case was filed by the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) in 2004. But, such patience and ability to carry on legal battle for such a long period of time cannot be possible in every case to retain every piece of wetland. In that case, will the land grabbers win? Doesn’t RAJUK have anything to do in this regard?