Reviving Dhaka’s Lifelines: How #CholoKhaalBachai# is Bringing Canals Again to Life

For hundreds of years, water has formed the id of Bengal. Bangladesh’s rivers and canals are greater than waterways—they’re lifelines for agriculture, transport, and resilience in opposition to floods. Bengal’s historical past even exhibits that irrigation canals had been dug practically three thousand years in the past.

Dhaka itself as soon as boasted round 65 canals, connecting neighborhoods and easing monsoon waterlogging. At the moment, surveys differ: some record 43–50 nonetheless functioning, whereas others recommend solely 26 stay. The decline has been stark. A examine by the River and Delta Analysis Centre (RDRC) discovered the capital misplaced practically 120 km of canal size—about 307 hectares—for the reason that Forties to encroachment and neglect.

Dhaka: As soon as a “Metropolis of Canals”

Lengthy earlier than automobiles and concrete, water formed Dhaka’s story. Within the Mughal period, town was known as the “Venice of the East.” Canals like Dholaikhal, Segunbagicha, and Narinda had been busy commerce routes. They related rivers to markets and carried boats filled with jute, spices, and textiles.

When Subedar Islam Khan made Dhaka the capital of Bengal within the early 1600s, he ordered the digging of Dholaikhal. It boosted commerce and likewise protected town from floods. These canals had been greater than waterways—they had been a part of Dhaka’s tradition, financial system, and security. Shedding them is not only an environmental situation. It additionally means shedding a part of town’s id and historical past.

From Useful resource to Danger

At the moment, that proud legacy is in peril. Unplanned progress, unlawful land grabs, rubbish dumping, and neglect have turned flowing canals into stagnant waste pits. The place boats as soon as moved and kids performed, folks now face unhealthy smells, mosquito swarms, and waterborne ailments.

The worth is excessive. Dhaka’s two metropolis firms spent greater than Tk 30 billion prior to now 12 years preventing waterlogging. But residents nonetheless endure. Research present that in some years, poor households misplaced as much as 8% of their revenue as a consequence of flood harm, well being care prices, and misplaced workdays.

Misplaced & Surviving Canals of Dhaka

Sources: Dhaka Tribune, The Day by day Star, RDRC, ResearchGate research

Well being & Social Impacts of Misplaced Canals

The lack of canals has not solely damage drainage but in addition made well being dangers worse. Stagnant, garbage-filled water turns into an ideal breeding floor for mosquitoes. This has led to rising instances of dengue and chikungunya. The World Well being Group warns that poor water methods in South Asian cities gas the unfold of those ailments.

For low-income households, clogged canals imply flooded properties, unsafe consuming water, and better medical payments. A examine in 2017 discovered that some households in Dhaka misplaced as much as 8% of their yearly revenue due to flood harm and well being prices.

Kids face the most important hazard. Polluted water causes diarrheal illness, which continues to be one of many most important causes of kid deaths in Bangladesh.

Local weather Resilience and Flood Safety

Dhaka constantly ranks among the many world’s most climate-vulnerable cities. With extra intense rainfall, the danger of flash floods grows yearly. Canals act as pure buffers, absorbing extra stormwater and channeling it into rivers. When they’re blocked or encroached upon, water has nowhere to go—resulting in hours and even days of waterlogging.

Restoring canals is greater than an city beautification venture; it’s a low-cost, nature-based adaptation technique. Whereas Dhaka invests billions in pumps and drainage methods, research present that reviving simply 15 canals might clear up as much as 80% of waterlogging issues.

A Collaborative Effort: #CholoKhaalBachai#

In the midst of this disaster, Berger Paints Bangladesh and Footsteps Bangladesh began the #CholoKhaalBachai# marketing campaign. It’s a volunteer-led effort to carry canals again to life. Their newest work targeted on the Bottola Mazar Canal in Hazaribagh, which had turn out to be little greater than an open rubbish pit.

In simply 12 days, greater than thousand volunteers and residents eliminated 35 truckloads of waste. For the primary time in years, water might movement once more. The cleanup diminished flooding, improved air high quality, and lowered well being dangers for tons of of households.

“This isn’t charity—it’s survival,” one native chief mentioned. “We can’t afford to lose our canals.”

Linking Native Motion to International Targets

This venture connects instantly with the United Nations Sustainable Improvement Targets, particularly SDG 6 (Clear Water and Sanitation) and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities).

Berger Paints has additionally labored to scale back air pollution. The corporate now makes lead-free, low-VOC, and APEO-free paints. It even launched Bangladesh’s first anti-pollution paint that absorbs greenhouse gases. However past merchandise, the actual lesson is within the mannequin: a enterprise, a youth nonprofit, and the group working collectively for city renewal.

Coverage & Governance Challenges

But, large challenges stay. Dhaka WASA, RAJUK, and town firms all share canal obligations, however their coordination is weak. Legal guidelines exist to cease land grabs, however enforcement is poor.

Encroachment continues. Builders, generally highly effective ones, take land alongside canals. Cleanup drives are launched, however rubbish and unlawful constructions typically return inside months. With out stronger oversight, these efforts threat changing into symbolic as a substitute of lasting.

Specialists say Dhaka wants one lead authority for its water our bodies. They name for harder legislation enforcement, group monitoring, and long-term planning to make canal restoration everlasting.

Past One Canal: What Comes Subsequent?

The cleanup of the Bottola Mazar Canal is a giant win, however the work can’t cease right here. To maintain canals alive, consultants say Dhaka wants:

• Neighborhood monitoring to cease folks from dumping waste once more.
• Coverage enforcement to dam land grabs.
• Public training so folks see the hyperlink between trash and water security.
• Scaling up the mannequin to revive Dhaka’s 26–50 remaining canals.

Different cities present this will work. Singapore and Ahmedabad, India cleaned up their waterways via sturdy partnerships between the private and non-private sectors. Dhaka can adapt these classes in its personal method.

Future Imaginative and prescient: A Dhaka with Restored Canals

Dreaming of a Dhaka with clear canals is just not fantasy—it’s attainable. Restored canals might carry:

• Much less flooding and decrease restore prices for households.
• Higher well being, with fewer waterborne ailments.
• Inexperienced corridors, new parks, and even eco-tourism.
• Financial progress, since properties close to clear water rise in worth.

Cities like Seoul reworked with the Cheonggyecheon Stream venture, and Singapore’s Kallang Basin blends flood management with recreation. Dhaka, too, can see canals not as drains however as treasures—a part of a secure, fashionable, and livable metropolis.

Editorial Takeaway

The revival of Bottola Mazar Canal exhibits what is feasible when companies, nonprofits, and residents unite. It isn’t simply CSR—it’s a imaginative and prescient for city survival.

For Dhaka, the stakes are excessive: clear canals imply diminished flooding, higher well being, and a extra livable metropolis. For Bangladesh, initiatives like #CholoKhaalBachai# could mark the start of a brand new mindset—the place waterways are protected as crucial infrastructure reasonably than deserted as waste pits.

As one volunteer put it: “We cleared rubbish, however what we actually restored was hope.”