The aesthetic beauty and wide-open spaces of the Hatirjheel project are gradually losing their charm due to odours seeping out from the contaminated lake.
The area draws a large number of city dwellers who converge on the area to hang out and have fun with friends and family, but the stench from the water is interfering with their fun.
The main objectives of the 302 acre project were to connect the eastern and western parts of Dhaka, reduce traffic jams, and improve Dhaka’s drainage and sewerage system, but it has turned into a hotspot for people to pass good times.
The project, which includes a beautiful lake, stylish bridges and beautiful flowers on road islands, has been drawing the crowds since it opened to public in January this year.
Lately however, the odour emanating from the lake has become troublesome as sewerage water makes its way into the lake.
Talking to this correspondent, many visitors said they could not stay there for long because of the bad smell coming from the lake.
Jannatul Ferdous, a visitor taking a stroll at the site with family members, told the UNB correspondent that it extremely difficult to pass time there due to the bad smell from the polluted water.
When asked about this issue, Abdul Mannan, acting chairman of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha (Rajuk), said the odour in the water at Hartirjheel was a technical problem. The stench is the result of sewerage water entering the drains which connect the Panthapath, Sonargaon and Rampura areas, he said.
Salauddin Ahmed, another official at Rajuk, said they were setting up pumps near the Rampura Bridge to remove the odour.
“Once the pumps are in place, there’ll be no stench from the water.”
However, Abdul Matin, general secretary of environmentalist group Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon, said it is not possible to clean the water at Hatirjheel simply by setting up pumps.
The water will spread more unpleasant odours in the area when it is drained, he said, adding that sewerage water from the Kalabagan, Panthapath and Moghbazar areas is entering the lake.
Matin said when project began they suggested to the concerned authorities that they should set up an organic treatment plant to remove the odour from the water.
He said the water at Hatirjheel would be odour-free if an organic treatment plant was set up to replace the lake water.
Asked what steps they are taking to remove waste from the Hatirjheel area, Rajuk official Salauddin Ahmed said the Dhaka North City Corporation would clean up the area after work on the project is completed. He said Rajuk would recruit workers, including security personnel and cleaners, to look after the project site once the army completes it work next year.
Aside from the stench from the lake, reckless motorcyclists have also been troubling visitors to the area, with four people killed in recent times in the Hatirjheel area.
When questioned about the deaths, Salauddin Ahmed said they had written to the Dhaka Metropolitan Police and asked the inspector general of police to take preventive measures to protect visitors to the area.
On January 2, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina formally inaugurated the Hatirjheel-Begunbari integrated development project.
The 302 acre site stretches between Airport Road and Rampura to the Tejgaon, Gulshan, Modhubagh, Moghbazar, Badda and Ulan areas.
