Dhaka Now and Dhaka of Gore Nana

By: Iftekhar Hassan

Gone are the days when Municipility trucks use to wash the street of Dhaka after Marwari Cleaners finished swept the streets of dhaka. Inspector like our beloved GORE NANA use to go around the city to inspect the works of Drivers and Cleaners. I remember very clearly "once GORE NANA" was yelling at a group of sweeper near "NAYABAZAR" as they failed to perform their respective duty of sweeping a some street that day. GORE NANA warned them of loosing job. I must GORE NANA was angry that day, but heck, later I came to know GORE NANA well, as he used to get angry every half an hour. GORE NANA was very skinny and looked funny, as he used to wear "PINK SATIN-KA-LUNGI" even when he was not around TALAB KENAR.

Now lets talk about how filthy Dhaka has become since the good old days. In reality Dhaka is a city that can be honestly describe as planets hell-hole, it has become most unhealthy city in the world for the following reason:-

(1) Thousand of factories and industries big and small, almost all unregulated dump thousand of tons of lead, chromium cadmium and other hazardous toxic materials coming from the Hazaribagh leather tannery, Dyeing and Finishing Textile units and other smelters in the adjoining areas.

(2)There is no sanitation for 80 percent of the urban population. Individual toilet facilities are available to only about 20 percent. Try to take a train ride in the morning from Komolapur Rail Station and watch "Thousand upon Thousand of kids taking crap on both side of the rail line along miles and mile of BASTIS.

(3) Adding insult to injury there exist no sewerage treatment system for 140 laks humans that now call Dhaka their home. WASA sources say that 16 lakh cubic metres of sewage generated everyday in the city, only about 50 thousand cubic metres could be treated. Reports say that the river Buriganga, Shitalakhya, Turag, Balu and adjacent wetlands including the lakes namely Gulshan-Baridhara and Uttara lakes receive an estimated 14 lakh cubic metres of raw sewage and waste water everyday.

(4) Solid chemical waste and poisons from untested cheap chemicals that are being imported into country along with disperse dyes, pigments, enzymes and effulents are all being discharge indiscriminatly into river Buriganga and Setalakhya without being treated first. So-called high class people of Dhaka Residents and workers across the city face disability, cancer and god knows mass death as these industries and shanty town units process and reprocess industrial by-products a series class of toxic metals and chemicals called hazardous wastes.

(5) Forget about Buriganga and Setalakhya river, water quality around so-called high class area of Gulshan-Baridhara and Uttara lakes is now a lifeless receptacle of human wastes, raw sewage and toxic industrial effluents from various industrial units of Tejgaon, Tongi and Badda areas has created a nightmare. I am quoting part of a report here as follows:-

"According to a study conducted by the DoE, these lakes' water carries a bacteria count of 1200 in place of 200 or less that is considered to be tolerable bacteria count in water bodies. Uttara lake was once a vast water body stretching from one end of Sector 3 to Sector 11 at least 3 km in length and 400 m wide. Because of indiscriminate dumping of household garbages, wastes and raw sewage from the bustling residential buildings all around, the lake's width and length have shrunk. The lake now is a stagnant pool of water, a giant sewer. With construction going apace in the RAJUK allotted land and people coming in ever increasing number to settle at Uttara, Joar Sahara, Badda and adjoining private lands, and RAJUK expanding its territory every year, the pollution scenario will be much worse. It is high time WASA devised an articulate plan to stop flow of sewage and wastewater into lakes and rivers that are considered "life line" of the city. People wonder if RAJUK prepared the Master Plan with any vision and forethought with regard to an articulate sewer line that would drain the raw sewage and waste water to places away from the habitat."

Respectfully Submitted

Iftekhar Hassan