Munshiganj Correspondent

The source of water for around four million people in Dhaka may be lost in a year or around that time frame and a Tk36.7 billion investment on a water treatment plant might get wasted as the only narrow channel of the River Padma leading to the intake point of a water treatment plant is being filled with alluvium very fast.

According to Google Earth data of 2024, the narrow channel was 3.25km north-west from pillar 2-4 of Padma Multipurpose Bridge and the width of the channel was 129 metre, which has shrunk further this year. Big water vessels cannot move in the channel due to the navigability crisis. Besides, there was another channel which is 1.5km away from the bridge and it becomes dead for the emerging shoals now.

According to local people as well as Google data, the rate of accumulation of alluvium and emergence of shoals at that part of the river was not so fast before the construction of the Padma Bridge. During construction of the bridge, environmentalists expressed their concerns over its effect on the river, but the engineers responsible for setting up the bridge’s pillars paid no heed to the warnings.

Moreover, any initiatives by the authorities concerned including the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) are yet to be seen to mitigate the crisis and this can lead to the death – which is “inevitable”, according to some specialists – of the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority’s (Dhaka WASA) plant with 450 MLD (million litre per day) capacity.

Officials of the Dhaka WASA said the shoals are emerging fast, narrowing the channel and if quick steps are not taken by the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) to clear the river bed, the plant which is now treating 25 MLD will have to be deserted, leaving at least 3 million people without water supply.

During a visit to the plant’s intake point and the channel linked to it on 13 January, it was seen that the channel starting from Padma Bridge ended at Vagyakul Bazar through the intake point of the plant at Jashaldia under Louhajang upazila of Munshiganj district.

Even a few years back there was another upstream leading to the intake point just 1.5km away from the bridge. While visiting the channel through a boat, it was seen that the channel’s depth was so narrow that even a small boat cannot pass during ebb.

Talking to this correspondent, water resource and climate change specialist Dr Ainun Nishat said, “Nothing can save the channel from death as it is getting filled up aggressively. We all knew that the east side of Padma River filled with alluviums fast while the west side was eroding. I talked about it in the media many times but some rogue engineers turned deaf ears to it. They should be brought to justice now.”

He also said, “WASA officials did not pay heed to any research and study ringed alarm for the project’s future. Construction of Padma Bridge is no excuse for it. The future was written on the wall. The river maintains its natural rule.”

However, an engineer wishing anonymity said they considered 25 years’ status of forming alluvium but he did not know why it did not sustain for that time frame.

He also said, “Construction work of the plant and Padma Bridge started at the same time in 2016.  The plant was inaugurated in October 2019. Since the installation of pillars of Padma Bridge, the channel started to be narrowed down soon.”

On 3 November 2024, Dhaka WASA wrote to BWDB, informing the concerns over the narrowing channel, saying that it serves the largest water treatment plant which connected 40 lakh people living in the south and south-west parts of the capital with a 33 km long transmission pipeline. According to the Dhaka WASA Water Supply Master Plan, another 450 MLD capacity water treatment plant will be constructed at the same place.

But a study by the Institute of Water Modeling as part of updating the Dhaka WASA Water Supply Master Plan finds that the main flow channel of the river is rapidly changing due to the Padma Bridge and the channel near to the eastern bank of the river has been narrowed fast by the intermingling of the former and the newly formed alluvium opposite to the intake point of the plant.

In such a situation, the channel adjacent to the intake channel of the water treatment plant is about to close permanently, it also said.

BWDB Director General Muhammad Amirul Haq Bhuiya could not be reached over phone while additional director general Md Enayet Ullah said he never heard about any such letter from Dhaka WASA.

The correspondent also talked to a number of engineers and officials of BWDB including the executive engineer of Munshiganj but nobody knows about the letter from Dhaka WASA.

Talking to this correspondent on 14 January, BWDB chief engineer Rifus Sazzad said that they had no project for dredging works, adding that he did not know about the letter.

He said, “We usually do dredging works under development projects and now, we have no such project. If WASA requests us to do so, we have to prepare a project. It is a mammoth task. Usually we avoid work. I think dredging at the eastern bank of the river will not be fruitful.”

Talking to this correspondent, Dhaka WASA Managing Director and additional secretary of water supply wing of Local Government Ministry Md Fazlur Rahman said, “We have already written to the water development board and are trying to start dredging work soon to ensure water flow through the channel.”

When asked for an expert view about its future, he said, “I cannot say anything about any wrong done by previous office holders. Now, I am trying to ensure communication with the water development board.”