Dhaka’s recurring monsoon paralysis is not simply the result of excessive rainfall but the consequence of decades spent filling, narrowing and polluting the canals that once carried stormwater out of the capital.
An investigation by Dhaka Tribune found that many waterways still shown on official maps have either vanished beneath buildings, roads and markets or been reduced to narrow, waste-choked drains incapable of performing their natural function.
Once connected to the Buriganga, Turag, Balu and Shitalakkhya rivers, Dhaka’s canal network formed the backbone of its drainage system.
Rainwater flowed through the canals into the surrounding rivers, while wetlands absorbed excess runoff and helped maintain the city’s ecological balance.
Much of that system has now been destroyed.
The consequences emerge with every monsoon shower.
Roads disappear beneath murky water, traffic comes to a standstill, businesses close and thousands of commuters become stranded after only a few hours of rain.
Neighbourhoods including Mirpur, Kalshi, Mohammadpur, Badda, Aftabnagar, Banasree, Rampura, Jatrabari, Demra and parts of Old Dhaka now experience prolonged waterlogging even after moderate rainfall.
Experts say Dhaka has effectively built over the routes through which water once escaped.
Decades of unplanned urbanisation, weak enforcement, institutional conflict and politically protected encroachment have transformed the city’s natural drainage assets into one of its greatest urban liabilities.
Some canals have been filled to make way for multistorey buildings.
Others have been occupied by roads, markets, commercial structures and informal settlements.
Box culverts have buried waterways underground, while household sewage, plastic waste and construction debris have obstructed those that remain exposed.
The result is a city increasingly unable to drain itself.
Responsibility for the canals has shifted repeatedly without halting their decline.
In 1988, the government handed 26 canals to Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority to improve the capital’s drainage system.
They remained under Wasa’s management for more than three decades, during which encroachment continued and several canals gradually disappeared.
Canal management was transferred to Dhaka North and South city corporations in 2021 amid hopes that local authorities would recover the waterways and improve drainage.
Residents and urban planners say little has fundamentally changed.
A senior Wasa official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the agency’s drainage infrastructure had originally been designed to carry stormwater and wastewater, but thousands of illegal sewage connections had overwhelmed it.
“Our drains were never designed to receive untreated waste directly from thousands of buildings,” the official said.
“Developers, poor enforcement and the lack of proper coordination allowed sewage to flow into the drainage network. The canals eventually became clogged.”
The official said responsibility should be shared among Wasa, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha, or Rajuk, and both city corporations.
Field visits to Nandipara, Manda, Mugda, Shonir Akhra and Mohammadpur revealed household sewage pipes discharging directly into canals.
Plastic, domestic rubbish and construction waste floated on stagnant black water or formed barriers that restricted its movement.
In several places, the canals had become open sewers, emitting a strong odour and creating breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
Alamgir Hossain, a Rampura resident, recalled when the neighbourhood canal still carried clean water.
“Now it has become a dumping ground. The smell is unbearable,” he said.
“Illegal structures have occupied both sides, and in many places it has become nothing more than a drain.”
Mohammad Shahjahan, who grew up in Hatirpool, said the area’s canal had disappeared completely beneath urban development.
“When we were children, there was an actual canal here,” he said. “Today, everything has been replaced by buildings.”
The lost canal at Hatirpool is one example of a broader transformation in which the physical traces of Dhaka’s waterways have disappeared while their names remain embedded in the city’s neighbourhoods and roads.
Public money has continued to flow into restoration projects, but questions remain over their impact.
In October 2022, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council approved a project costing approximately Tk898.73 crore to restore the Kalunagar, Jirani, Manda and Shyampur canals.
Implemented by Dhaka South City Corporation, the project aimed to restore water flow, reduce waterlogging and develop walkways, cycling lanes, playgrounds, green spaces and recreational facilities.
It was scheduled for completion by June 2026.
However, site visits found many sections still polluted, encroached upon or unable to function effectively as drainage channels.
Urban planners say beautification will achieve little unless authorities first restore the canals’ width, depth, continuity and connections to surrounding rivers.
Professor Adil Muhammad Khan of Jahangirnagar University’s Department of Urban and Regional Planning said Dhaka’s waterlogging was fundamentally a planning failure.
“Canals are the primary pathways through which rainwater reaches rivers,” he said.
“When canals are filled, occupied or blocked by waste, the drainage system collapses. Restoring canals and protecting wetlands must become a priority if Dhaka wants to reduce waterlogging.”
Architect Iqbal Habib, an executive member of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon, said every monsoon exposed the same failures of fragmented governance.
“This is not only about rainfall,” he said. “It is about blocking the natural flow of water through poor planning and weak coordination among government agencies.”
The two city corporations acknowledge the scale of the crisis.
Dhaka North City Corporation Administrator Mohammad Shafiqul Islam Khan said years of accumulated waste and encroachment had left almost every canal in poor condition.
“If we fail to recover these canals, Dhaka cannot be protected,” he said, adding that the corporation planned to reclaim all 29 canals under its jurisdiction with public support.
Dhaka South City Corporation Administrator Mohammad Abdus Salam blamed indiscriminate waste dumping and decades of unplanned development for the decline of canals and wetlands.
“People throw everything from polythene bags to pillows into drains,” he said.
He said the corporation planned to excavate canals in phases and restore natural drainage.
The investigation, however, indicates that the crisis cannot be attributed to public behaviour alone.
Rajuk has repeatedly faced criticism for failing to prevent developments that obstruct waterways and flood-flow zones.
Wasa’s infrastructure has been overwhelmed by illegal sewage connections.
The city corporations have struggled to remove encroachers and maintain canals regularly.
Environmental laws and court directives have also gone unenforced, allowing influential occupiers to retain control of public waterways.
The absence of a single accountable authority has enabled agencies to shift responsibility while the drainage system continues to deteriorate.
Urban planners warn that canal restoration is no longer merely an environmental or beautification exercise.
It has become essential to Dhaka’s survival as extreme rainfall and rapid construction place increasing pressure on the city.
Recovery would require more than periodically removing waste.
Authorities would have to demarcate canals, remove illegal structures, restore links between waterways and rivers, prevent sewage discharge, protect remaining wetlands and stop approving construction that blocks natural drainage.
Without those measures, experts say expensive pumping stations, underground drains and short-term clean-up drives will offer only temporary relief.
Dhaka was not built without an escape route for monsoon water.
The city had rivers, canals, wetlands and floodplains capable of carrying and absorbing it.
Those escape routes were systematically narrowed, polluted or buried.
As a result, Dhaka’s annual waterlogging is no longer an unavoidable natural disaster.
It is a man-made crisis resurfacing with every rainfall.
