City people know Hatirjheel as a symbol of art for its construction, and style for its beauty. But now city people have to bear a lot to live with it. The colour of the Hatirjheel water has taken on that of dirt, a smelly dirty mess. At the same time, the quantity of garbage floating on the water has increased. Even on the embankment side, piles of garbage can be seen.
Arman Hossain who lives in the Mohanagar area near Hatirjheel said, “in almost all seasons of the year, except for the rainy season, the water has a filthy whiff.” When the lake was opened to everyone, the situation was not so . The water was also quite transparent, he added.
Now visitors and pedestrians are enjoying the beauty of the lake with handkerchief-covered noses. Some nonchalant visitors and pedestrians who visit the Hatirjheel pollute the water by dumping garbage into the lake frequently. Visitors and locals allege that the beauty of the lake is deteriorating due to the smell of the garbage on the water. Taking a walk through the Hatirjheel area has become very difficult.
Citizens are fearful of the different bacteria thriving in the water. Meanwhile, the water is slowly getting murky due to being stagnant, but no action is being taken. Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) said, there will no longer be anything of concern once the project is completed.
It was learnt that a project worth Tk 49 crore is to be undertaken to relieve the contamination of water in Hatirjheel. An Australian-made high-capacity air compressor pipe for refining the lake water has already arrived in the country. Under this project, modern technology will be used for the installation of the 'High Capacity Air Compressor.'
Regarding the progress of the project, ASM Raihanul Ferdous, chief engineer and director of the Hatirjheel project, said that several pieces of machinery had to be imported from Australia. It is being processed. And the overall progress of the project is 20 percent so far, he added.
The rest of the machinery is on the way to Bangladesh, and work will begin. He claimed that the water would be cleansed and the smell would be gone. Household garbage, various food items plastic packages left by the visitors, packets of chanachur and chips, bottles of water and various types of dirt are floating in the water. The shops and restaurants around Hattijheel are also dumping garbage in the lake.
With the wind, the odor is spreading in Jhilpar and surrounding areas. White foam is being created by the surge in the concentration of dirty water. Similar images can be seen in FDC intersection, Begunbari Lakepar, Gudaraghat, Niketan and Rampura, and Hatirjheel area of Police Plaza. Hatirjheel project was mainly taken up to reduce traffic congestion, conserve rainwater, prevent floods and water stagnation, improve water filtration and add to the aesthetic beauty of the capital city, the project has spectacularly failed at preventing floods.
The Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) Superintendent Engineer Asaduzzaman said, “Not enough water can pass through Hatirjheel's sluice gates. There are three mechanical scanners at each of the gates. This causes some resistance to the usual flow of water. The gates are also not that wide. This makes it impossible for them to operate during heavy rains. So the gates are forced to be opened, causing situations like that.”
