The government has spent Tk 141 crore over six years to restore the Buriganga by bringing in water from the Jamuna River through the New Dhaleshwari-Pungli-Bangshi-Turag system. But a lack of political will and monitoring by the authorities has led to a serious funds crisis, hitting the implementation of the project, said sources.
In 2010, the Bangladesh Water Development Board (WDB) undertook the five-year project. The original estimated cost was Tk 944 crore.
The WDB also submitted a revised detailed project proposal of Tk 1,125 crore in June following a study by the Chinese firm Avic-Eng and Chwe. The Chinese firm, however, submitted its report in January, estimating that it would take Tk 3,000 crore to implement the project.
The main objective of the project is to restore navigation in the Buriganga and clean it up by bringing fresh water from the Jamuna, which is about 162km away. Unless the work progresses non-stop, it will be meaningless and a total waste of money, the sources said.
The sources also alleged that around 60km of the project has not been dredged according to design. Also, many dredged areas have apparently filled up with silt again. “We've decided to construct a 1.5-km silt trap at the source of the New Dhaleshwari. We've already written to the local district administration to acquire 75 hectares in this regard,” Abul Kalam Azad, chief engineer of the central zone of the WDB, told The Independent on Tuesday.
He said the Chinese company has proposed to construct a sand barrier, a flushing switch, and a flow defector upstream of the Jamuna to divert the flow into the New Dhaleswari.
“The government has allocated only Tk 30 crore in the current fiscal to run the project,” he said in reply to a query. The project could be smoothly implemented if foreign funds were available. The revised DPP with the study report has already been sent to the ERD, he added.
“We’ve manually dredged 55.5km in Tangail and 7.5km in Dhaka. There are 22 bridges on the river route. Of these, two are under the railway department, eight under the roads and highways department (RHD), and the rest under the local government engineering department (LHED),” he said.
The bridges’ foundations need to be treated before the river is dredged, Azad said, adding, “We’ve already written to the relevant departments. But they are yet to state their position in this regard.” A government committee, headed by Abdus Sobhan Sikder, senior secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office, had decided on September 2 last year to treat the foundations of the bridges, said Azad added. He added that the departments concerned were informed about the committee’s decision.
Replying to a query, Azad, who is also the project director, said, “Money is a factor. Besides, Railway’s, RHD’s, and LGED’s activities on their bridges are also a reason to delay the project.” The waters of the Buriganga, Turag and Shitalkhya, burdened with industrial effluents and tannery wastes, have become so filthy that one cannot take a dip in them. The project is not only meant to restore their water quality but also to revive their near-extinct aquatic life, and to restore the lost livelihood of local fishermen.