Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) has planned to conserve 53 natural water bodies in the city, in order to retain its surface water resources for protecting the environment from further degradation.
The city corporation has adopted a Tk206 crore uplift project titled “Natural Water Bodies Conservation and Development in Rajshahi City” to attain the cherished goal, side by side with protecting the ponds from further dumping.
Ashraful Haque, chief engineer of RCC, told BSS that under the project 53 ponds – at least one or more ponds in each of the city’s 30 wards, would be preserved and 98 acres of land would be acquired for the purpose. He said no one would be allowed to fill up the ponds.
The banks of the ponds will be concretised with retaining wall aside from the necessary excavation and re-excavation. In addition to benches and walkways, concrete stairs will be constructed in all the developed ponds for the benefit of the people.
Engineer Ashraf said there were 729 ponds and canals in the metropolis in 2002, but the figure had fallen to 393 because of indiscriminate land filling and unplanned urbanisation.
He said because of abnormal decline in surface water dependence on groundwater had been increasing to ensure water supply to city dwellers causing unusual lowering of the groundwater table over the past few years.
The situation worsens during the dry season, leaving most of the hand-driven tube wells inoperative. “We have no way to conserve surface water resources from all sorts of depletion to ensure that the groundwater table remains intact,” Ashraf said.