Authorities in Bangladesh’s second largest city violated laws by approving building plans where there were ponds.
Shariful Islam : Rajapukur is one of the busiest areas of Chattogram. Multi-storied buildings look down on roads chockablock with traffic. One of those roads is called Rajapukur Lane. Till 2000, it used to lead to a 0.29-hectare pond. Today, large buildings stand where the pond was. The name Rajapukur – king’s pond – remains the only memory of what was once a key source of water in the southern parts of Bangladesh’s largest port and second largest city.
In recent decades, residential and commercial buildings, mosques and temples, have been built in Chattogram (earlier called Chittagong) by filling in 3,908 ponds with garbage and a layer of soil.
According to the Bangladesh Conservation of Natural Water Bodies Act 2000, “It is illegal to fill any pond, reservoir, river, canal etc.” According to Section 5 of the Act, “It is illegal to reclassify or otherwise use, rent, lease, or transfer an area designated as a natural water body. Any person who violates this provision shall be punished with imprisonment of five years or a fine not exceeding BDT [Bangladeshi Taka] 50,000 (US$500) or both as per sections 8 and 12 of the Act.
Filling in a water body is also a crime under the Environment Protection Act.
Lackluster monitoring
Saving water bodies from being filled in is the responsibility of the Department of Environment (DoE). However, so far, the DoE has not conducted any survey of the water bodies in the city. Since its establishment in 1989, it has filed 20 criminal cases about filling in water bodies in Chattogram. The verdict has been pronounced in two of the cases. DoE failed to prove its case in one; in the other, the encroacher was fined BDT 50,000 (US$500).
When asked about this, Humayun Kabir Rashid, a lawyer for the DoE, told this correspondent: “I was not working for the DoE when the two cases were disposed of. I am trying my best to prove the cases on trial now.”
Hillol Biswas, Director of the DoE, Chattogram City, said, “We have a shortage of manpower. Though around 100 water bodies were filled in the last 11 years, we couldn’t take action in every case. We are trying to take as much action as possible within our limitation.”
The authority that approves building plans
Tanveer Ahmed Chowdhury, who built four high-rise buildings on Rajapukur, told this correspondent: “Rajapukur was filled in 20-30 years ago. These [houses] were built with proper approval from the Chattogram Development Authority (CDA). We made the foundation with pile drivers to avoid any risk.”
In two official documents, Revisional Survey and Bangladesh Survey, Rajapukur plot numbers 474 and 831 are described as ponds. According to the Bangladesh Environment Conservation Act (amended in 2010), authorities are not supposed to approve building plans in such locations. But that was what the CDA did.
Asked why, CDA spokesperson and chief engineer Kazi Hasan bin Shams declined to comment. He asked this correspondent to speak to an “authorized officer”.
That officer, Mohammad Elias, said: “As Revisional Survey was done during the British period [before 1947], I don’t follow it. We follow only Bangladesh Survey (BS), which was conducted from 1970-1990.” He said that he did not know if Rajapukur was shown on the BS map and added: “We will take action if buildings were approved on the pond.”
Many violations
A CDA survey in 2006-2007 identified 4,523 ponds in Chattogram. In 2018, the Department of Fisheries (DOF) found only 615 ponds, stretching over 1,076 hectares.
Dewanji Pond was another well-known pond in Chattogram, spread over 0.33 hectares. The area next to it was known as a place for music concerts, plays and so on. But all that was before the pond was filled up in 1997 to build centers for religious establishments such as Satsang Ashram and Sri Nigamananda Saraswat Ashram, and for some shops. Around the same time, the historic Lal Dighi (Red Lake) was filled up and a mosque came up in its place.
CDA building inspector Priyatosh Das told this correspondent: “Various structures have been built by filling Dewanji pond. CDA has also given approval for the construction of these facilities. To be honest, even 20-30 years ago, construction of buildings by filling up ponds was not difficult when CDA would have given approval. But now, it is difficult to build structures by filling ponds.”
According to Das, CDA still gives permission for the construction of structures by filling ponds up to 0.09 hectares. However, he could not say under what law this was being allowed.
Even a lake as large as the 2.22-hectare Kamaldah Dighi in the city’s Chawk Bazar area has been filled in. Today there is a school, a hospital, a community center, residential and commercial buildings where the lake used to be.
Tula Pukur (pond) at Lalkhan Bazar was filled in. There is a slum where it used to be.
A recent case
The 1995 Detailed Area Plan (DAP) of the CDA said “large water bodies of at least 0.10 hectares cannot be filled in any way”. But on May 24, 2018, CDA permitted a 10-storey building in place of Banu Mahajan’s pond stretching around 0.163 hectares in the West Sholoshahar area of the city. It is marked as a pond in both Revisional and Bangladesh Surveys.
Neighbors say “owners” filled in the pond and built a wall around it. One local resident, Apu Kumar Sheel, told this correspondent: “Even ten years ago, the size of the 100-year-old Banu Mahajan’s pond was more than 0.16 hectares. It was filled overnight. Now a building is being constructed there.”
The residents complained to the DoE, which filed a lawsuit against the people who were building the structure. However, they said that they had not filled in the pond, they had bought the plot after the pond had been filled in.
Nikash Das, one of the people facing the DoE lawsuit, told this correspondent: “Eight years ago, I bought the land from three brothers named Jasim, Nezam, and Suja. There were no ponds then, only land with boundary walls. If there was a pond, it was filled in before our purchase. I do not know when it was filled in.”
Inspector Monir Hossain of the DoE said, “No approval has been taken from the government for filling Banu Mahajan’s pond. I do not know under which law the CDA has approved the construction of a ten-story residential building in that place.”
Priyatosh Das, an officer in CDA, first said, “That place is not marked as a pond on the BS map. Due to this, the construction of buildings may have been allowed there.” When this correspondent pointed out that it was marked as a pond in the BS map, the officer said, “I will recommend taking action in this matter after looking into the investigation.”
Authorities violate laws for their own offices
Masuma Jannat, senior assistant commissioner in the land acquisition department of the Chattogram district administration (CDA), issued a recent circular on September 29, 2022, declaring that the CDA is going to acquire a pond that stretches across 0.20 hectares in Chandgaon area. It is shown as a pond under plot numbers 11894 and 1189 in the BS map.
In another circular in 2018, the district administration acquired a pond of 0.19 hectares — called Bameswar Mahajan at Mohra in Chandgaon — for the Power Development Board (PDB).
Morshed Manjurul Islam, deputy project director of PDB Chattogram, said, “The main responsibility of land acquisition lies with the district administration. We want land. Officially we are not in charge of land acquisition. It is the responsibility of the District Commissioner.”
When asked, Chattogram Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Mominur Rahman said: “I don’t know whether the pond is being acquired or not. I have hundreds of land acquisition cases here. If the owner of the pond applies to the district administration, then we will not acquire that land; we will give it away.”
Increased dependence on groundwater
As the number of surface water bodies has been decreasing every year, the number of deep tube wells is increasing in the city. According to Chattogram Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (CWASA) data, the number of licensed tube wells in the city increased from 60 in 2000 to 4,237 in 2022. This is in addition to CWASA’s own 37 deep tube wells connected to powerful pumps for water supply to residents. A CWASA official who did not want to be identified said the number of unlicensed tube wells in the city would be over 50,000.
As a result, the water table in this city is falling despite its proximity to the coast. CWASA data shows the water table in the Agrabad area fell from 241 feet in 2011 to 312 feet in 2021.
Mahbubul Alam, president of the Chattogram Chamber of Commerce and Industry, was quoted by the Daily Star newspaper in 2019 as saying the underground water level in the city’s Sitakunda area was dropping so fast that water was not found even after drilling 1,500-2,000 feet into the ground.
CWASA Managing Director AKM Fazlullah told this correspondent: “In 2009, Chattogram WASA produced 120 million liters of water daily (MLD). At present, we produce 450-500 MLD. Still, we cannot fulfil 100% of the demand of the residents as the number of ponds or reservoirs has decreased. The dependence on underground water has increased, causing it to deplete groundwater.”
There are other consequences. Anisur Rahman, Deputy Director of Chattogram Division of Fire Service and Civil Defense, told this correspondent: “Due to unplanned urbanization and indifference of those concerned in reservoir conservation, on the one hand, surface water sources are being lost. On the other hand, the amount of damage caused by fire is also increasing. Due to the filling of ponds, the normal operations of the fire service are being disrupted. It is difficult to find water while fighting a fire.”
Expert views
Mohammad Jahangir Alam, Vice Chancellor of University of Science and Technology Chattogram, told this correspondent: “The main reasons for the disappearance of ponds in Chattogram are unplanned urbanization, industrialization, infrastructure development, increase in land prices and illegal construction of housing.”
“There should never be any construction by filling up ponds. This will destroy the environment. It is also costly if it is well-planned. But in our country, people do not spend much money on planning buildings well. This increases the risk of collapse,” Alam added.
Ponds are also water reservoirs. With the disappearance of so many, waterlogging has become far more frequent, experts point out.
Morshed Hossain Molla, a PhD research student at the Geography and Ecology Department at the University of Chittagong, told this correspondent: “As land is precious in the city areas, the pond owners gradually filled them. It’s lack of proper monitoring by the law enforcement agencies.”
Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) chief executive Syeda Rizwana Hasan told this correspondent: “Filling of ponds is a punishable crime. The High Court has ruled that even if the pond is private, its category cannot be changed. In such a situation, CDA has set a bad precedent by allowing the construction of buildings on pond-category land. The acquisition of pond-category land is unfortunate. Why should government buildings be built in a pond?”
[The story is based on an investigation under a grant fellowship of the Earth Journalism Network]
