Decades of negligence in the capital’s drainage system have made it difficult to resolve waterlogging, said Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) Administrator Mohammad Azaz on Monday, adding that the waterlogging on major roads following the morning’s rainfall was the result of such negligence.

Speaking at a seminar organised by the South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance, Azaz said, “Industries have been prioritised while the environment was neglected, and this is why Dhaka is in such a dire state. Even a little rainfall creates waterlogging.”

We have recovered 112 kilometers of canals in just three months. Earlier, hundreds of crores of taka were allocated for such work. We haven’t taken an extra penny, he added.

He informed that canals in Abdullahpur and Sonati areas of Dhaka have already been reclaimed. “If canals are recovered, river recovery will also be easier,” he noted.

In my six and a half months in office, I’ve learned every inch of Dhaka’s rivers. With only political goodwill, resolving the city’s waterlogging and reclaiming rivers is very much possible, Azaz said.

At the seminar, a keynote presentation was delivered by North South University Associate Professor Abdus Samad, who revealed that harmful heavy metals like arsenic and cadmium were found in the Buriganga, Dhaleshwari, Shitalakhya, Turag, and Balu rivers.

The Buriganga and Shitalakhya are particularly plagued by heavy metal pollution, which threatens not only the livability of Dhaka but also public health, the seminar highlighted.