Gulshan Lake and the Mayor Atiq’s annoyance

Since around a year and a half after my retirement, I live in a flat on the first floor of an old building near Gulshan Lake. If you sit in the verandah between two bedrooms of the flat, you can look straight down into the lake. On the other side are the embassies of Canada, Nepal and India. What could be a more beautiful location, living in Dhaka!

But the problem is that you can’t sit in the verandah. In fact, not only do you have to keep the verandah door closed, but the bedroom windows closed too. There are the pesky mosquitoes, true, but the main problem is the stench of the lake water. During the monsoons the stench decreases to a tolerable level and the people living on the upper storeys are relieved to an extent. But second storey residents like myself have to live with this vile odour nine months of the year.

Three crisscrossing roads have actually made Gulshan Lake into a number of large ponds. To the southern most part, the Gulshan-Badda Link Road had separated a part of the lake and attached it to Hatirjheel. Of the two other roads, one had a bridge , much narrower than the width of the lake. The road blocks a considerable portion of the lake before spanning it with a small bridge. The other road doesn’t even have a bridge at all, just a few pipes running below it to allow the lake water to pass through.

Garbage piles up on either side of these roads, a disgusting scene adding to the intolerable stink. There are bamboo fences and nets under the bridges to facilitate fish cultivation. Water can pass through the fences. The fish farming facilities have been leased out and the lessee has people who go around in boats, throwing fish feed into the water. The fish caught in this toxic water is sold in the market and we buy and consume it. Sometimes the quality of the water deteriorates to such an extent, that dead fish float to the surface. The smell of the rotting fish adds to the already intolerable stench.

Why is the lake in this pitiful state? Most of the sewerage waste from the residential areas on three sides pours into the lake by means of wide pipes. And the household workers dump garbage directly into the lake. And so the lake has become a garbage dump.

In January 2023 the Dhaka North mayor Atiqul Islam took up a move to close the surface drains and the sewerage lines entering the lake. He angrily blocked the lines with banana trees, warning that if the owners of the houses do not take measures, steps would be take to close these permanently.

According to the city corporation, of the 3,830 houses in the Gulshan, Baridhara, Banani and Niketan areas, the sewerage of 2,265 is attached to surface drains or the lake (The Business Standard, 11 January 2023). The mayor issued directives to link these with WASA sewerage lines or for each house to set up an ETP. His annoyance lay in the fact that wealthy people lived in these areas, yet were so careless about garbage disposal.

I cannot comprehend why the owners of the houses discharge their waste into the lake instead of linking up with the WASA line. Has WASA no responsibility here? The mayor’s alternative suggestion is fanciful and unrealistic. It has been impossible to set up ETP even in industrial units despite much effort. The waste from the factories is killing the rivers. Now if directives are issued for ETP to be set up for every house, this will certainly fill the pockets of the concerned DNCC persons. Anyway, despite the mayor’s annoyance, neither of the two proposals has been heeded. The state of the lake hasn’t changed over the past 15 months either.

On 16 March this year the mayor started a ‘Clean Gulshan Lake Drive’ in full force, beginning with a rally where the mayor was flanked by government bigwigs. There were a few schoolchildren too, carrying posters worded in English. The Financial Times headlines read, ‘Local residents begin cleaning Gulshan Lake.’ After the rally, videos were shot of black sludge being removed from the depths of the lake by means of two dredging machines. Then everyone left the scene. Such symbolic cleanliness drives have been staged in the past too, but with no visible signs of any awareness.

Gulshan Lake suffers from serious maladies and it would be foolish to imagine that these could be cured by any quack remedy. It is for specialists to determine what antidote is required. But generally speaking, there seems to be certain essential measures to be taken:

1.  First of all adequate sewerage lines have to be laid down alongside the two banks of the lake so that the house owners do not have to link their sewerage to the surface drains.

2.  Once dumping garbage into the lake is halted, all the dirty water of the lake must be removed by pumps.

3.  There is a four to five foot layer of garbage sludge along the bed of the lake. This must be removed so that the clean soil below can be reached.

After that if there is no scope to dump garbage in the lake anymore, the lake will fill with the rainfall of one monsoon and the runoff waters from around it.

The task is not an easy one. It will require huge funds, planning and implementation. The problem is, RAJUK owns the lake and they have no time to worry their heads over such insignificant matters. WASA owns the sewerage lines. WASA’s MD Taqsem Khan has been appointed seven consecutive times on contract with a fat salary for doing nothing whatsoever. Why will he bother about this mess? The mayor only owns the roads and the surface drains. No matter how serious he may be, it is difficult for him to do anything.

There is only one solution. In this country, it takes the prime minister’s orders to even arrest criminals or take steps to control the market. If Mayor Atiq manages to get her approval, within seven days WASA can handover the lake on a 99-year lease to DNCC at a token cost of one taka. While keeping Taqsem Khan’s benefits intact, it will be possible to sidestep him and arrange fund allocation for the project and its implementation. Try it, Mr. Mayor. If you succeed, then let me put in some requests in advance for certain urgent measures:

1.  Every day large numbers of people pause by the lake to urinate. Make some public toilets by the lake in Gulshan so we may be freed of this ugly public menace.

2.  The project should include long, elevated and aesthetically pleasing bridges on the three roads that link the two banks of the lake. This will make it into a real lake. The bridge to the south will link the lake to Hatirjheel. This is essential for your vision of people boating in the lake.

3.  There are quite wide walkways in Baridhara Park and there are not many people there. The walkways in Gulshan are relatively narrow and dilapidated. Large numbers of working people use these routes every day. Create wide walkways by the lake. Let there be space for us too, the seniors who like to walk in the mornings and evenings.

4.  You said that once the lake was cleaned, you would cultivate fish. Not a good idea at all. You can release some fish fry and anglers can go fishing for recreation. If you cultivate fish on a commercial basis, the lake will not remain fit for boating or bathing.

5.  Finally, ensure that the project includes round-the-clock guards for at least two or three years so that they can accost anyone littering the areas. If this can be kept up for two or three years, hopefully the people residing around the lake and their household help will realise that the lake is not a garbage dump.

* Md. Touhid Hossain is a former foreign secretary

* This column appeared in the print and online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten for the English edition by Ayesha Kabir