HC bans pisciculture in Dhaka WASA lagoon
The High Court (HC) yesterday banned fish farming in the lagoon of the Syedabad sewage treatment plant of the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA).
After disposing of a writ petition on the subject, the HC benchcomprising Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Md Ashraful Kamalalso issued seven directives to implement the order.
The HC directed the authorities to construct boundary walls around the lagoon within the next two years. It also imposed a ban on farming of fish in the lagoon and directed that a magistrate should monitor the development every two months in the presence of fisheries department officials, law enforcement personnel and journalists.
The HC further directed the authorities to appoint adequate Ansar and security guards to look after the lagoon and intensify night patrols in the area. It asked the WASA to repair and preserve the lagoon.
The HC also asked the authorities to put up signboards to generate public awareness, indicating that the fish of the lagoon was poisonous and harmful for human consumption, along with a notice about the ban on fish farming in the lagoon and that it was a punishable offence.
It also asked the public representatives of the area to form a citizens committee in order to stop farming of fish in the lagoon.
Earlier, on November 14, 2011, the HC had issued a rule asking the government to explain why farming of fish in the lagoon should not be banned. It had issued the rule in response to a writ petition filed by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB), a rights body, on the subject.
The rights body filed the petition following a report published in a national daily on July 13, 2011, stating that Dhaka residents were being supplied poisonous fish from the lagoon.
According to advocate Manzill Murshid, counsel for the petitioner, there are several WASA lagoons and ponds in the 246-acre Syedabad-Pagla-Kadamtali stretch, which are meant for sewage treatment.
