For too long have Dhaka’s canals been in danger of completely vanishing, due in part to reasons such as uncontrollable waste dumping, illegal encroachment, and lack of any maintenance schemes whatsoever on the part of our city administrations.
To that end, the recent drive by Dhaka North City Corporation officials to clean up our canals and evict illegal occupants from Mohammadpur’s Lautala and Ramchandrapur canals is absolutely laudable. However, the number of canals in Dhaka has steadily been on a sharp decline, and it is high time that more comprehensive measures were undertaken to rectify this.
As a city, Dhaka has been surrounded by rivers, canals, and lakes since its very founding, and was home to around 60 canals in the late 1980s -- that number dropped to 50 between the years 2007-2008. Vanishing canals and wetlands have a severe impact on biodiversity and increase the capital’s vulnerability to floods by diminishing groundwater levels and natural drainage.
It is imperative that our city corporations take every possible measure to restore Dhaka’s canals, as doing so would not only help improve our environmental integrity but also drastically improve quality of life for citizens.
To that end, while ad hoc eviction drives and clean-up campaigns are appreciated, we agree with experts’ call for a more systemic action plan which considers historical and existing data into account.
Of course, some of the key issues exacerbating our vanishing canals, such as indiscriminate waste dumping, require other solutions to nip them in the bud. In this case, improving the state of our waste management would absolutely be key.
Our canals, much like our rivers, have fallen prey to administrative apathy. We hope the DNCC’s recent drive can help reinforce the importance of keeping our canals free of clutter and restore them in the long run.
Thursday, June 04, 2026
