Building on DAP water body raises concerns

The Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) has started constructing a building on 11 acres of land in the capital's Gabtoli area, which has been marked off as an open water body in the Detailed Area Plan (DAP).

The land, owned by the BADC, was being used for a long time as farmland where it produced seeds. Now the land has been filled up to build a modern laboratory for seed production.

Environmentalists said the corporation's action is wrong as there is already a lack of open reservoirs in Dhaka. They said the BADC violated the Natural Water Reservoir Conservation Act through such action and legal action should be taken against its move.

The area in question is adjacent to an ongoing project of a water-centric eco-park for storing rainwater undertaken by the Dhaka North City Corporation. On the issue, at the beginning of the construction work, the city corporation sent a letter to the BADC chairman.

However, the BADC denies receiving such a letter.

Abdullah Sazzad, chairman of BADC, told The Business Standard that the water body in the area was already filled when he took office two months ago. "This place has already been used as our seed production farm. Now a new building is being constructed with a large laboratory."

The chairman also said he was not aware of the area being marked off as an open water body. He was also unaware of any letter being received from Dhaka North.

The BADC chairman also could not immediately say if the building is being constructed with the permission of the Department of Environment and Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk). "I deal with matters from the whole of Bangladesh. I cannot comment on this particular subject."

Dhaka North Mayor Atiqul Islam expressed his dissatisfaction over the BADC's action. "It is sad when a government agency is doing something wrong despite the prime minister's repeated call against a filling up of agricultural land and water bodies," he told TBS.

"We are planning and working on retention ponds to relieve the people of Dhaka from waterlogging. But filling up such an important reservoir will disrupt our operations. We wrote to the BADC once before about preserving the area," the mayor said.

Architect Iqbal Habib, joint secretary of the Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (BAPA), told TBS that the reservoir had been taken by the BADC for water testing, but now it is violating the Natural Water Reservoir Conservation Act by filling it. "Clearly, legal action should be taken against it."

He further said around this area of the Kallyanpur Retention Pond, there will be a water eco park, where a youth-centric development plan has been drawn up, relying on nature to provide renewable energy and water from its own sources.

"If the reservoirs are filled now, it will also not be protected from urban flooding," Iqbal said.

A visit to the area on Thursday by the TBS correspondent revealed that most of the 33-acre open water body has been filled with sand. A temporary house was being constructed on one side of it. In one part, the soil was being loosened and levelled with an excavator.

An employee of the contractor company on the site told TBS, "We got sand filling work here, so we filled it. As far as I know, a six-storey building of the BADC will be constructed here and the remaining part will be a nursery."

Also at the site, Abu Sufian, a BADC foreman, said sand dumping started about six months ago and a six-storey building will be set up as a laboratory for BADC's research.

It will be a tissue culture laboratory, Sufian said, adding that there will be research on different types of foreign varieties, including dates, pineapples, potatoes and bananas.

He also said paddy was cultivated here last season. Of the 33 acres of the open reservoir, 11 acres have been filled with sand. In the remaining part, paddy is being cultivated.

Dhaka North wrote another letter to the BADC chairman on 29 March, urging him not to construct heavy structures on the adjacent Kallyanpur Retention Pond and to maintain it as a water reservoir according to the DAP policy.

The letter, signed by the city corporation's Chief Executive Officer Md Selim Reza, said, "It is necessary to refrain from construction of heavy structures on the BADC land adjacent to the Kallyanpur Retention Pond in the public interest to ease the city's waterlogging problem. Such structures will create a barrier in the ongoing development activities of the retention pond."

In December 2020, about 53 acres of land were handed over to Dhaka North from Dhaka Wasa for the construction of the Kallyanpur Retention Pond. As a result, the city corporation has about 105 acres of land in the area in its name.

On the other hand, the BADC has around 117 acres of land adjacent to the Gabtoli embankment and the retention pond. This land is designated as a water body, according to the DAP. The land covered by the water body is subject to obtaining clearance from Rajuk for any construction.

The water-centric eco-park is being built around these water bodies at a cost of around Tk1,000 crore. The park will cover around 182.31 acres, which are in the possession of different government agencies, including the BADC. ***