Despite having specific environmental law in place, occupying and filling up hundreds of ponds, tanks and water bodies are still continuing in the port city of Chittagong due to slack monitoring.
According to the Playground, Open Space, Park and Natural Water Body Protection Act 2000, filling up of any water bodies including ponds is a punishable offence.
However, the illegal encroachment of water bodies continues.
Rajapukur, a large pond located in the city’s Anderkilla area, is now a part of history as residential buildings have been constructed on it.
Like Rajapukur, scores of age-old ponds, tanks, and water bodies have disappeared from the map of the port city over the years due to unplanned urbanization and lax monitoring by the authorities concerned.
The green activists condemn the fact that the natural water bodies are being filled up for construction of residential buildings, markets, bus-truck terminals, and other commercial establishments.
According to the law, an accused can be sentenced to either five years of imprisonment or a fine of Tk50,000, or both, if found guilty of grabbing any water body.
As per Chittagong metropolitan office of the Department of Environment (DoE), 10 people have been fined a total of around Tk10.74 lakh in the last three years for illegally filing up of ponds and tanks.
Besides, DoE's Chittagong metropolitan office has lodged 10 cases with the environment court in the last eight years for illegally filling up or encroaching on water bodies.
On February 25 last year, a mobile court of Department of Environment (DoE) sentenced two people to six months imprisonment for illegally filling up an age-old pond at Barobkunda area of Sitakunda upazila in Chittagong.
The mobile court also fined the duo Tk1 lakh each, failure to payment of which means an additional three months in prison.
There is no recent data regarding the exact number of existing water bodies in Chittagong.
According to a survey conducted by the District Fisheries Department in 1991, the number of water bodies in the port city stood at 19,250. However, the Physical Feature Survey conducted by the Chittagong Development Authority from 2006 to 2007 revealed the existence of 4,523 water bodies.
Architect Zarina Hossain, secretary of Forum for Planned Chittagong, said: "Open spaces, including the canals, used for retaining rainwater or storm water, are disappearing fast in the city. But the concerned government agencies are miserably failing to protect the open spaces."
Muhammad Rashidul Hasan, assistant professor at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (Cuet), said the disappearing natural water bodies in the port city have become a matter of grave concern.
“Water congestion has turned out to be a perennial problem for the city. A pond or a tank helps ease waterlogging by retaining rainwater or storm water. Shrinking water bodies are fast depleting food chain for the birds and other animals, which poses a serious threat to the ecosystem," Rashidul said.
“A pond comes in handy during a fire incident," said Jasim Uddin, deputy assistant director of Chittagong Fire Services.
"Firefighting has turned out to be a challenging task due to the acute shortage of water bodies. So the illegal filling up of water bodies should be dealt with immediately," he added.