Mayor for Dhaka North turns mayor for family

by Rashad Ahamad

Dhaka North City Corporation mayor Md Atiqul Islam is accused of abusing his position to help a number of private organisations connected to him, his family, or close associates do profitable business, shaping careers, gaining fame using the city corporation taking the advantages illegally.

The mayor’s personal link is found with at least four private organisations—Shakti Foundation, Oikko Foundation, Obhoyaronno, and BD Clean—that are working with DNCC.

Atiq allegedly favoured the organisations without following rules, funded them, and facilitated them to get funding from other local and international organisations.

Atiq admitted the involvement of his own family members in the organisations and claimed that he was doing it to promote good jobs in society.

Of the organisations, the Shakti Foundation was founded by Atiq’s sister-in-law, Humaira Islam, who is also the executive director of the foundation.

Atiq’s nephew, Imran Ahmed, works as deputy executive director at the foundation, while the mayor’s daughter, Bushra Afreen, is a management executive.

Imran, the son of Atiq’s elder brother and former chief justice Md Tafazzul Islam, was appointed as one of the five advisers to the mayor on November 9, 2022.

While four other advisers—Centre for Urban Studies chairman Professor Nazrul Islam, secretary of the centre Salma A Shafi, green activist and architect Iqbal Habib, and Jahangirnagar University professor and entomologist Kabirul Bashar—are experts in their respective fields, Imran holds no strong portfolio.

His daughter Bushra was appointed as chief heat officer for Dhaka, the first such appointment for any Asian city, by the US-based Arsht-Rock Foundation.

The foundation engaged DNCC’s partner organisation, Shakti Foundation, to select the candidate.

‘Imran and Bushra are not getting any coins from the city corporation,’ Atiq said, adding that he did not see any problem if the mayor took advice from any unpaid one.

Shakti officials admitted receiving funds from the MetLife Foundation, the HSBC Bank Foundation, and the Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation for their work with DNCC.

At the 19th board meeting of the city corporation held in January 2023, Atiq approved an agreement with Shakti for tree plantations in Dhaka.

Shakti is implementing Muktir Sabujayon and Nature-Based solution projects on behalf of DNCC. The city authority recently awarded Shakti another green project titled the Nagar Sabujayan Project.

Shakti is the only organisation working with DNCC in such a capacity, confirmed DNCC officials.

Metlife Foundation donated Shakti Tk 45 lakh for the Muktir Sabujayon project, under which the foundation renovated the Jallad Khana Memorial in Mirpur.

MetLife Foundation spokesperson Saif Rahman said that they needed an implementation partner capable of doing the job.

‘Shakti is our partner to implement the projects in the DNCC area,’ he said.

Mayor Atiq himself holds the executive president post of the Oikko Foundation, an SME organisation entrusted with organising holiday markets on the footpaths in the capital’s Agargaon.

The foundation was awarded the work without any tender or legal procedure.

The foundation is profiting Tk 3,000 daily from each entrepreneur who displays products on the city footpath.

DNCC chief executive officer, Md Selim Reza, said that the holiday market was running on a pilot basis without any agreement with the Oikko Foundation.

‘We want to get ideas from this pilot project so that in the future we can do better management of more holiday markets,’ he said, adding that the DNCC has no profit share or monitoring of the organisation.

Atiq admitted his involvement with Oikko but claimed he was not taking any benefits.

Atiq’s daughter Bushra is also a policy consultant at the animal rights organisation Obhoyaronno, which runs commercial activities using DNCC facilities.

Obhoyaronno is charging Tk 1,500 for neutering a dog, Tk 2,000 for spaying, Tk 300 for rabies vaccination, and Tk 1,200 for Nobivac vaccination.

DNCC public health officer Mohammad Luthfor Rahman confirmed that they have no formal agreement with Obhoyaronno to use public facilities under the city corporation.

He refused to take further questions on the matter, saying that the mayor was personally dealing with Obhoyaronno.

Atiq said his daughter was involved with Obhoyaronno as an animal lover.

Responding to an email from New Age, Obhoyaronno said that Bushra’s affiliation with the organisation had started ‘long before she became the mayor’s daughter.’

Obhoyaronno said that they had received approximately $85,000 in donations from US-based Humane Society International, FAO, and Dog Trust UK in the past five years.

Dhaka’s other city corporation, Dhaka South City Corporation’s acting chief health officer, Fazle Shamsul Kabir, said that once they also had an agreement with Obhoyarronno, they did not renew it after 2018.

‘They did nothing for dogs but took foreign donations,’ he said.

According to the annual report of Dogs Trust Worldwide, they funded Obhoyaronno with $44,622 in 2020 and $6,132 in 2019.

The Humane Society International website reported that since 2016, the organisation has funded Obhoyaronno approximately $200,000.

BD Clean, a platform of youths founded by Mayor Atiq’s assistant private secretary Farid Uddin, received at least Tk 22 lakh as a grant in three instalments between 2021 and 2022 for cleaning the city.

DNCC officials said that Farid used his position as APS of the mayor to divert public money to his own organisation.

Atiq said he decided to support BD Clean as they were doing a good job.

‘I don’t see any problem with it,’ he said.

Transparency International Bangladesh executive director Iftekharuzzaman said these are gross violations of the mayor’s oath that he had taken as a public representative and examples of nepotism and conflict of interest.

‘Mayor is not for his men but rather for the people of the city,’ he said.

Atiq was elected as Dhaka mayor in February 2019 following the death of Anisul Huq. During his re-election campaign in 2020, he used the hashtag ‘AtiqforDhaka.’

The mayor has been misusing his power to favour his relatives, family members, and loved ones. These are examples of nepotism and favouritism, which are by definition corruption,’ said Iftekharuzzaman.

Published on New Age

Capital Development Master Plan Changed in Bangladesh Allowing Taller Buildings

Dhaka to be more dense, unliveable: urban planners

by Rashad Ahamad

The government in a fresh move recently decided to allow construction companies or landowners to erect taller buildings within the capital, altering the Detailed Area Plan that had been implemented just over a year ago.

The revision of the Dhaka’s development master plan, designed to guide the city’s growth over the next two decades, occurred without following the proper procedure.

This move appeared, according to urban planners, to favour landowners and real estate developers, exacerbating the already severe civic facility shortages and chaos in an overcrowded city.

Urban planners expressed concerns and said that the updated DAP would not only increase building heights but also raise population density in the already densely populated capital.

Dhaka’s residents have long grappled with acute shortages of essential services, crippling traffic congestion, frequent water stagnation, and crises in healthcare and education, among other challenges.

The influx of additional residents into the city is expected to worsen these existing crises, further pushing Dhaka, which is already ranked as one of the world’s least liveable cities, even deeper into a dire crisis.

To put the population density in perspective, Dhaka currently has a staggering 600 people per acre.

According to the United Nations’ guidelines for a healthy city, the maximum population density should be capped at 120 people per acre.

Comparatively, the world’s largest city, Tokyo, with a population of 33 million, houses fewer than 90 people per acre. High-rise cities like Singapore boast a density of 80 people per acre, while Sydney maintains a density of 58 and New York 112.

These figures underscore the stark disparity between Dhaka’s current situation and global urban standards.

‘It is unacceptable to review a 20-year planning document for the capital within one year of its adaptation and before an assessment of its implementation on the ground,’ said Jahangirnagar University urban planning professor Akter Mahmud.

He said that the highly technical planning document was reviewed without consultation with professionals to give advantages for land owners and realtors. Several members of the DAP review committee confirmed that the review was done without any consultation with them as no meeting was held with them since the formation of the committee in January.

The government published the gazette notification on the Detailed Area Plan 2016–35 for Dhaka Metropolitan Region in August 2022.

The 2016–35 DAP, the second DAP, came into effect six years after the scheduled time as the previous 1995–2015 plan came into effect in 2010 and ended in 2015.

The 2016–35 DAP review gazette notification was published on September 24, within one year of its adaptation. Although, the authorities are empowered to review the DAP in every three years to update it through a proper procedure.

City planning authority Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha officials said that only 50 building designs were approved since the adaptation of the new DAP.

The DAP has been adapted for 1,528 square kilometres covering Dhaka metropolitan area and its outskirts, including parts of Gazipur, Savar and Narayanganj.

Institute for Planning and Development in an observation over the revised DAP expressed concerned and said that the DAP was reviewed under pressure from vested interests and that would intensify the civic problems and deteriorate liveability of the already overloaded city.

In the revised DAP, the government increased the floor area ratio — the measurement of a building’s floor area in relation to the size of the land of the building.

It will benefit the construction companies as they will get an additional height of their building even if it is located beside a narrow road, urban planners said.

‘Compromising liveability, additional floor area ratio is ensured for developers in the revised DAP,’ said IPD executive director and Jahangirnagar University urban planning professor Adil Mohammad Khan.

He said that the DAP review would question the commitment of the government to make the city liveable for all.

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology urban and regional planning professor Musleh Uddin Hasan said that he was one of the 11-member committee for the DAP review but the committee held no meeting.

‘I don’t know how it was revised and who did it,’ he said.

Institute of Architects Bangladesh also prepared some recommendations for the DAP review but the reviewed DAP was published without its consultation.

Architect Iqbal Habib said that developers’ demands were met in the DAP review, but public demands were ignored.

The review has brought about major changes to seven clauses of the DAP mostly related to floor area ratio, which is in other word rise in building height.

Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh president Alamgir Shamsul Alamin Kajal, however, said that the reviewed DAP was better than the original one, which was ‘faulty’.

He said that the floor area ratio was increased considering the reality of the city.

He said that before the review the DAP cut down floor area ratio to a half compared with the previous one and now the ratio reached a rational level.

State minister for housing and public works Sharif Ahmed declined to comment over phone on the DAP review saying that the prime minister would brief on this.

Rajuk chairman Md Anisur Rahman Miah also declined to comment saying that he was yet to go through the revised documents.

Bangladesh wastes public money in the name of dengue control

by Rashad Ahamad

Dengue fatalities and hospitalizations have been increasing in the capital city every year, despite the two city corporations in Dhaka increasing budgetary allocations for mosquito control regularly.

Analyzing Dhaka South City Corporation’s budget documents, the DSCC spent Tk 152 crore in the past seven years on buying mainly insecticides and machines for killing mosquitoes.

This year, the city corporation also allocated Tk 40 crore for mosquito control in the 2023–24 financial year, up from Tk 35 crore in 2022–23.

Meanwhile, Dhaka North City Corporation spent Tk 280 crore during the same period while allotting Tk 84 crore for the 2023–24 financial year, which was Tk 53 crore in 2022–23.

However, dengue fatality and hospitalization have been increasing in the city despite the hike of the budget for killing mosquitoes which the experts said is a waste of public money.

Entomologists and health rights activists said that the two city corporations mostly wasted this money on wrong and ineffective methods, resulting in an ever-increasing number of cases and fatalities this year.

In January, after inspecting the mosquito control program of the city of Miami in the United States, DNCC mayor Md Atiqul Islam acknowledged that the method used so far in fighting mosquitoes in the capital city was wrong and a waste of public money.

He announced that the city corporation would follow a new method, but speaking to New Age on Tuesday, he admitted to his failure.

Over the years, the two city corporations in Dhaka used to spray larvicide in the morning to kill mosquito larvae and do fogging to kill adult mosquitoes.

Officials said that in fogging, DNCC uses Malathion and DSCC uses a mixture of Deltamethrin and Malathion, and both city corporations use temephos, an organophosphate larvicide used to treat water infested with disease-carrying insects, including mosquitoes, for spray.

Atiq explained that he wanted to introduce BTI, or Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis, a naturally occurring soil bacterium that can effectively kill mosquito larvae present in water, this year but was forced to suspend it after a scandal in import.

DNCC last week suspended the use of BTI after its importer, Marshal Agrovet Chemical Industries Ltd., falsely claimed its product was manufactured by a Singapore-based chemical plant.

DSCC chief health officer Fazle Shamsul Kabir said that they had been using the same insecticide in the same manner over the years and had increased their budgetary allocation for better action against the vector.

Entomologists said that the anti-mosquito drive was faulty, unrealistic, and unscientific, adding that mosquitoes developed resistance to the larvicide and adulticide after repeated use.

Former president of the Zoological Society of Bangladesh and an entomologist, Manjur Ahmed Chowdhury, said that what the city corporations were doing here to control mosquitoes was against the basic principle of vector management, and as a result, dengue deaths and infections were on the rise.

‘What the city corporations are doing is institutional cheating on city dwellers, who pay tax for killing mosquitoes,’ he said.

He also said that frogs, ducks, fish, and so many other things also yielded no results over the years and suggested the city authorities find effective measures immediately to prevent further transmission of the dengue virus.

Janashasthaya Sangram Parishad president Faiezul Hakim Lala alleged that corruption in two city corporations prevented them from getting the desired result in mosquito control efforts.

‘Due to the unaccountability and corruption, the situation turned much worse,’ he said.

Faiezul, also a physician and political activist, found that dengue fatalities had been increasing as mosquitoes developed resistance due to repeated use of the same insecticide over the years.

DSCC chief health officer Fazle Shamsul Kabir, however, denied allegations of wasting public money and rather blamed the public for their lack of awareness of mosquito breeding.

‘If there were no city corporations, the situation would have been much worse,’ he claimed.

Against this backdrop, the Directorate General of Health Service reported 14 deaths and 1,594 hospitalizations on Friday, a weekly holiday when most hospitals did not report to the authorities.

With this, 277 people died of dengue this year and 110,224 people were hospitalized, both a record since official counting began in 2000.

DGHS reported 28,429 dengue hospitalizations and 105 deaths in 2021, which in 2022 reached 62,382 hospitalizations and 281 deaths.

Published on New Age

Dengue deaths, cases rise in Bangladesh despite growing spending

by Rashad Ahamad

Dengue fatalities and hospitalisations have been increasing in the capital every year, despite the two city corporations in Dhaka increasing budgetary allocations for mosquito control regularly.

According to the documents available, Dhaka South City Corporation spent at least Tk 152 crore in the past seven years on buying mainly insecticides and machines.

The city corporation also allocated Tk 40 crore for mosquito control in the 2023–24 financial year, up from Tk 35 crore in 2022–23.

Dhaka North City Corporation spent Tk 280 crore during the same period while allotting Tk 84 crore for the 2023–24 financial year, which was Tk 53 crore in 2022–23.

Entomologists and health rights activists said that the two city corporations mostly wasted this money on wrong and ineffective methods, resulting in an ever-increasing number of cases and fatalities.

In January, after inspecting the mosquito control programme of the city of Miami in the United States, DNCC mayor Md Atiqul Islam acknowledged that the method used so far in fighting mosquitoes in the capital city was wrong and a waste of public money.

He announced that the city corporation would follow a new method, but speaking to New Age on Tuesday, he admitted to his failure.

Over the years, the two city corporations in Dhaka used to spray larvicide in the morning to kill mosquito larvae and do fogging to kill adult mosquitoes.

Officials said that in fogging, DNCC uses Malathion and DSCC uses a mixture of Deltamethrin and Malathion, and both city corporations use temephos, an organophosphate larvicide used to treat water infested with disease-carrying insects, including mosquitoes, for spray.

Atiq explained that he wanted to introduce BTI, or Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis, a naturally occurring soil bacterium that can effectively kill mosquito larvae present in water, this year but was forced to suspend it after a scandal in import.

DNCC last week suspended the use of BTI after its importer, Marshal Agrovet Chemical Industries Ltd., falsely claimed its product was manufactured by a Singapore-based chemical plant.

DSCC chief health officer Fazle Shamsul Kabir said that they had been using the same insecticide in the same manner over the years and had increased their budgetary allocation for better action against the vector.

Entomologists said that the anti-mosquito drive was faulty, unrealistic, and unscientific, adding that mosquitoes developed resistance to the larvicide and adulticide after repeated use.

Former president of the Zoological Society of Bangladesh and an entomologist, Manjur Ahmed Chowdhury, said that what the city corporations were doing here to control mosquitoes was against the basic principle of vector management, and as a result, dengue deaths and infections were on the rise.

‘What the city corporations are doing is institutional cheating on city dwellers, who pay tax for killing mosquitoes,’ he said.

He also said that frogs, ducks, fish, and so many other things also yielded no results over the years and suggested the city authorities find effective measures immediately to prevent further transmission of the dengue virus.

Janashasthaya Sangram Parishad president Faiezul Hakim Lala alleged that corruption in two city corporations prevented them from getting the desired result in mosquito control efforts.

‘Due to the unaccountability and corruption, the situation turned much worse,’ he said.

Faiezul, also a physician and political activist, found that dengue fatalities had been increasing as mosquitoes developed resistance due to repeated use of the same insecticide over the years.

DSCC chief health officer Fazle Shamsul Kabir, however, denied allegations of wasting public money and rather blamed the public for their lack of awareness of mosquito breeding.

‘If there were no city corporations, the situation would have been much worse,’ he claimed.

Against this backdrop, the Directorate General of Health Service reported 14 deaths and 1,594 hospitalisations on Friday, a weekly holiday when most hospitals did not report to the authorities.

With this, 277 people died of dengue this year and 110,224 people were hospitalised, both a record since official counting began in 2000.

DGHS reported 28,429 dengue hospitalisations and 105 deaths in 2021, which in 2022 reached 62,382 hospitalisations and 281 deaths.

Mayor Atiqul Islam’s adviser Kabirul Bashar identified three reasons—global warming due to climate change, weakness in mosquito control initiatives, and indifference of mass people—behind the record high dengue deaths and hospitalisations.

He said that the anti-mosquito drive was wrong and not effective for various reasons.

‘Authority is not doing according to my advice, and as an adviser, I cannot do anything in the field,’ he added.

Published on New Age

Bangladesh’s public buildings survey finds 32pc structures turn risky in 20yrs, 15pc in 10yrs of construction

by Rashad Ahamad

The Education Engineering Department of Bangladesh completed the construction of a 4-storey building at Doshaid AK School and College at Ashulia of Savar in 2017. The Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha assessed the building in 2023 as vulnerable to disasters and recommended retrofitting the structure.

Within six years of the construction, the building has been assessed as risky though the department is required to build public structures for a 100-year lifespan.

‘We have just started using the building for our ICT classes and suddenly we have received the highly unexpected report,’ said college principal Md Nasir Uddin.

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University had a 17-storey building constructed for its education and healthcare service delivery in 2007 spending public money.

The Rajuk has found the building so vulnerable that experts recommended demolishing it as retrofitting cannot make it safe.

Not only the Doshaid school’s 4-storey building or the BSMMU’s 17-storey building, but the Rajuk has also identified 42 multi-storey public buildings, mostly educational institutions, which need to be demolished for avoiding disaster casualties while 187 buildings need retrofitting.

Rajuk Urban Resilience Project has conducted a survey on 3,252 multi-storey buildings in 10 zones of the 1,528 square kilometer Rajuk area that, in addition to the two Dhaka cities, comprises parts of Gazipur, Savar and Narayanganj.

Project director Abdul Latif Helaly of the World Bank-funded Urban Resilience Project said that the survey was conducted on a random basis only on public structures, mostly school, college and university buildings.

The disaster-vulnerability of both public and private buildings used for residential, industrial and commercial purposes was a reality in Dhaka, he said, adding that  the survey did not cover private buildings.

According to the survey report, 32 percent of the vulnerable buildings constructed with public money are aged 20 years or less while 15 percent are aged 10 years or less.

The assessment of new buildings as vulnerable has frustrated and panicked the users. They have demanded immediate steps from the authorities concerned in this regard.

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology civil engineering professor and disaster expert Mehedi Ahmed Ansary said that building vulnerability depends on soil quality, design faults and use of sub-standard and disproportionate construction materials.

Referring to his experience, Professor Mehedi said that he found many new buildings not only in Dhaka but also elsewhere to be vulnerable while many old buildings were still in good condition.

‘The constriction year is not a major issue. A building’s vulnerability depends on the construction design, the building materials used and the soil condition of the building,’ he said.

The Education Engineering Department of the government has constructed almost all the buildings for schools, colleges and high schools while universities built their buildings by themselves.

Of the 42 vulnerable buildings recommended for demolition, the BSMMU has three, Jahangirnagar University three, Jagannath University four while 30 buildings were identified to be under the EED authority.

The 187 buildings that need retrofitting include the EED’s 154 buildings, JU’s 10, and the Health Engineering Department’s four buildings among others.

EED chief engineer Delwar Hossain Mojumder said that during the construction of the buildings they followed the earlier Bangladesh National Building Code but as the latest BNBC 2020 was enacted the structures became vulnerable to earthquake and thus they became risky.

He said that the EED constructed the buildings under its authority mainly under different projects and handed over them to the relevant educational institution authorities.

‘The Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education is legally the authority to decide further action in this regard,’ he noted.

EED officials pointed out that the buildings were constructed by different contractors and, according to the Public Procurement Rules, the security money of the contractors was released after one year.

However, differing with the argument that buildings turned vulnerable as the BNBC was modified, civil engineers viewed that the structures turned vulnerable as the BNBC was not followed properly.

Rajuk officials said that they had already informed the relevant authorities of the vulnerability of the buildings and asked them to take actions within three months.

Professor Mahbuba Nasreen of the Institute of Disaster Management and Vulnerability Studies at Dhaka University said that Rajuk, as the monitoring agency, must take steps to make the vulnerable buildings safe.

‘We must ensure the mitigation of the risk [vulnerability] and do that to make the structures safe,’ she said, adding that some 70 percent of the structures in the capital might collapse in an earthquake of a mild magnitude.

Dhaka, she noted, has already been included in the list of earthquake-risky cities.

BUET professor Ansary said that the Rajuk should start the evaluation soon and also ensure the building construction quality in the case of new structures.

BSMMU vice-chancellor Professor Sharfuddin said that their building was constructed by the Public Works Department, not by the BSMMU, under a project.

‘I will sit with the PWD and the Rajuk and tell them to conduct a further assessment jointly before taking a final decision,’ he said, adding that the building will be demolished if the fresh assessment too finds it risky again.

According to Rajuk officials, the agency is working to conduct an assessment of private buildings and structures in cooperation with the private sector to find the risk factors. For the assessment, the private building owners will have to submit their building safety reports to the Rajuk, prepared by listed firms, what the garment sector did after the Rana Plaza collapsed in 2013, they said.

Published on New Age

Water crisis deepens in many parts of Dhaka amid record-high summer heat

by Rashad Ahamad

There has been an acute water crisis in many parts of the capital city Dhaka while the demand for water has increased owing to record-high summer heat during the month of Ramadan.

Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority officials said that they were operating all 910 deep tube wells across the city to meet the additional water demand but the water crisis remains acute in some parts of the city where the demand saw a sharp increase.

Mazharul Islam Rony, a resident of Nobodoy Housing Society at Mohammadpur, said that they were living at the society’s apartment for the past 15 years but did not face such water scarcity in the past.

He said that they had been getting inadequate water for the past one month, while several thousand families in the society and adjacent areas had been receiving no water at all in pipeline for the past five days.

‘We are buying water in bottles and jars costing Tk 600 daily for a family to survive,’ he said.

While the house owners communicated with the Dhaka WASA local office for an alternative water supply in trucks but three days has gone by without any such water coming, he further said.

‘We have now no other option but to leave the house,’ he said.

The residents of a part of Dhanmondi, Rayerbazar, Zigatola, Dhaka Udyan, Mohammadia Housing Society, Shekhertek and other adjacent areas are facing the same acute water crisis.

Dhanmondi’s Madhubazar area residents complained that Dhaka WASA did not inform them earlier of the water crisis.

Dhaka WASA deputy managing director AKM Shahid Uddin said that his agency had requested residents and public representatives of the areas for land to set up a pump house. ‘But unfortunately the land could not be managed,’ he added.

He explained that thousands of buildings were built in the area over the years but the water volume for them could not be increased for the lack of land.

‘Let them provide us with land, we will set up a pump within two months and the water crisis will be gone,’ he said.

He also explained that as there was no opportunity to increase the production capacity of the existing pumps setting up new pumps was therefore the only option.

Explaining that the water consumption has increased in all parts of the capital, he said that the overall water demand had gone up due to the excessive summer heat.

While some people are using more water, some are not getting water, he went on to say.

As the water demand has increased manifold, he further said, it has also resulted in water shortages for the people living around the end of pipelines.

Currently, the Dhaka WASA is producing 265–270 core liters of water daily in its 910 deep tube wells across the city, according to the water agency’s sources.

According to its estimate, a person consumes 130 litres of water every day while the per capita use has increased many times due to the high heat.

Residents complained that the Dhaka WASA was not sincere about their problem and not trying to solve it.

Dhaka WASA DMD Shahid Uddin said that there was no immediate chance to increase the water output as all the pumps were on operation in their full capacity.

However, on March 18, Dhaka WASA managing director Taqsem A Khan had committed that the entity had completed its preparations to ensure an uninterrupted water supply and maintain normal water supply for the consumers of the capital during Ramadan.

While addressing a press conference, he also said that all the water treatment plants and water pumps managed by the agency would remain functional round the clock during Ramadan, adding that in case of a power outage, the pumps will run using backup and mobile generators.

The Dhaka WASA has 380 fixed and 18 portable generators meant to keep the power supply uninterrupted for water production.

Published on New Age

‘Ghost Gas’ blamed for frequent building explosions in Bangladesh

by Rashad Ahamad

Authorities continue to remain in the dark about the actual causes of frequent building explosions, mostly in Dhaka and some elsewhere in the country, except having a general conclusion that mostly gas-triggered explosions.

According to officials, 14 similar explosions have been recorded since 2014 for which gas was blamed for causing them as security agencies so far did not find any bomb-like objects or explosive substances to have triggered the blasts.

The Fire Service, the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police and the Department of Explosives, among other entities, in their investigations after several earlier building explosions blamed gas for the incidents that killed more than 90 people and injured scores.

Authorities are, however, yet to carry out any in-depth studies on explosions to see exactly what gas or what mixture of gases was responsible for the building blasts.

Experts were also uncertain about how the gases, which were said to have triggered the blasts, might have been generated or what gases were there as none have investigated the matter over the years.

But they say that it is important to know the actual cause or causes to be able to stop the repetition of such blasts.

Building explosions have become a much talked-about issue in the country, especially following two building explosions at a short interval — one near the Science Laboratory Crossing and the other at Old Dhaka’s Siddique Bazar near Gulistan in the capital recently — killing at least 26 people and injuring many dozens.

Explosives department assistant inspector Sabbir Ahmed on Friday said that they had, meanwhile, submitted the primary investigation report on the explosion at the three-storey commercial building, Shirin Mansion, near the Science Lab crossing and primarily blamed gas for the explosion.

He explained that the source of the gas involved might have been an air conditioner or a refrigerator or a gas supply pipe.

Some suspected that the Siddique Bazar building blast resulted from gases that accumulated from a septic tank.

‘In my view, the latest explosion [at Siuddique Bazar] was caused by natural gas that might have leaked in various ways,’ said Professor Syeda Sultana Razia at the chemical engineering department of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.

Urban experts emphasise finding out the root cause or causes of the explosions as the frequency of such incidents is on the rise.

However, officials from the city corporation, Dhaka WASA, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha, Department of Explosives, Fire Service and individual experts from the academia are yet to carry out any in-depth study to solve the ‘mystery’.

Dhaka WASA managing director Taqsem A Khan on Saturday said that though some people blamed the gases generated in the Siddique Bazar building septic tank for the building’s explosion but it was impossible, though there was no study carried out on the possible causes.

Fire Service director Wahidul Islam said that utility service providers like the Rajuk and Titas Gas, among others, should sponsor such studies were not possible on the part of the Fire Service.

According to Abdul Latif Helaly, director of the disaster-related World Bank-funded Urban Resilience Project and also a former Rajuk chief engineer, the Rajuk does not conduct a study on a gas explosion if it is not caused by gases generated in a septic tank of a building.

After the Moghbazar building explosion in the capital on June 27, 2022, the CTTC unit came up with a report which stated that a total of 11 other building blasts had occurred at Gulshan, Bangshal, Armanitola, Kalachandpur and Central Road in the capital and in Narayanganj, Feni, and Mymensingh since 2014, concluding that the blasts were triggered by gas as the unit did not find any other explosives behind the blasts.

Though gas has been blamed for causing the explosions and fire incidents over the years, the agencies concerned did not detect the exact gas or gases responsible for as well as their sources.

Explosive specialists and urban experts laid emphasis on including enough ventilation systems in buildings while designing them in order to avoid the repetition of similar blasts and also on keeping spaces between buildings to reduce the risks of damages from such explosions.

Gases that accumulate in vacant but blocked spaces, experts also agreed, cause explosions as there is no scope for the accumulating gas to get out of such spaces due to faulty design of buildings.

Jahangirnagar University urban and regional planning professor Adil Mohammad Khan said that the maintenance of utility services, particularly gas and water services, were very poor in the cities, leaving unknown death traps for people.

He also criticised the culture of cordoned approaches and closed rooms in urban buildings without proper ventilation systems.

Such unscientific practices, he went on to say, are contrary to the building code as well against the climate of the country.

BUET professor Easir Arafat Khan said that the building blast incidents in Moghbazar, Siddique Bazar and Science Lab areas were the same as huge quantities of gas accumulated in the building spaces in a volatile state from where the gases could not get out to be mixed with the atmosphere’s air due to a confined situation.

According to Dhaka University disaster science professor Md Zillur Rahman, as concentrations of flammable gases like methane are available in human waste as well as in supplied gas, explosions might occur from them.

He suspected that the Siddique Bazar explosion was due to a leakage in a gas pipe.

BUET professor and disaster expert Md Ali Ahmmad Shoukat Choudhury advised that gas suppliers should add more sulfur to the gases they supply to consumers so that people can smell the presence of gas in any a risky space and can take safety measures.

Urban planners said that the excessive and unplanned use of air conditioners was resulting in multiple problems like disaster risks, urban heat and an economic burden on the people of Bangladesh.

Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company director Selim Mia, however, denied the allegation of any gas pipeline leakage.

DU chemistry professor SM Mizanur Rahman said that gases from septic tanks were not enough to cause massive explosions like the one at Siddique Bazar.

‘There is methane gas available in both septic tanks and Titas Gas pipes but septic tanks do not generate enough methane gas to cause a big explosion,’ he said.

Adil further noted that gaps maintained between buildings as per the building code make it possible for any type of underground gas to be released into the atmosphere’s air.

He also emphasised not covering the entire surface of the soil so that uncovered spaces could release any underground gas, in addition to recharging groundwater and giving others benefits.

On September 4, 2020, at least 34 people died after a blast ripped through Baitus Salat Jame Masjid at Paschim Talla of Fatulla in Narayanganj.

Locals said that at least five such incidents were reported at Fatullah in the past two years.

On January 13, 2021, air conditioner mechanic Azizul Haque, 35, died and six others were injured after an AC compressor reportedly exploded at Emporium Financial Centre in Dhaka’s Gulshan area.

On March 15, 2018, though a blast at Bhaluka in Mymensingh, which killed five people, was initially suspected to be an extremist act was later found to have resulted from a gas leak.

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Building explosion leaves 18 dead, over 200 injured in Bangladesh

by Rashad Ahamad

At least 18 people were killed and over 200 others were injured in an explosion in a seven-storey building in Gulistan area in Bangladesh capital Dhaka on Tuesday afternoon.

Four of the deceased are Nazmul Hossain, 25, of Bangshal area, Md Sumon, 21, of Suritola, Mominul Islam, 38,of Islambagh and his wife Nadi Akhter, 30, all of Old Dhaka. Identities of the remaining ones could not be known.

Of the deceased people, 16 are males and two are females. The reason behind the explosion is still unknown.

Officials at Dhaka Medical College Hospital where most of the injured people were brought said that over 80 patients were admitted to the hospital and over 20 of them were critically injured.

Witnesses said that the explosion occurred on the ground floor of a market cum residential building, known as Queen Market, at about 4:50pm. It is an East face building on the west side of a busy North-South Road.

The explosion shook the nearby half square areas.

Due to the huge explosion, nearby Kader Mansion and Fatima Market were aksi badly damaged and glasses and furniture broke down. A number of the residents of the buildings were also injured in the incident.

Fire service rescue team leader Colonel Tazul Islam Chowdhury suspected that there might be bodies under the debris as the rescuers couldn’t reach every corners of the building until filing the report at about 11:00pm.

Fire service officials said that the building became risky due to the explosion and they couldn’t remove any rubble from the hole of the building.

President Abdul Hamid, prime minister and ruling Awami League president Sheikh Hasina and the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, in separate statements, expressed their profound shock and sorrow at the casualties over the incident.

The news of the explosion came after two deadly explosions in Dhaka and Chattogram earlier this week.

Injured rickshaw puller Md Nazir Hossain said that he was returning to Gulistan from Babubazar Bridge with a passenger. He was on traffic jam with several hundred others on different types of vehicle during the explosion.

‘I heard a sound of explosion that felt like earthquake and saw storm like dust all around,’ said Nazir who was given eight stitches on his head that was injured by falling glasses.

Different sizes of broken glasses were found scattered all around the road while the affected building’s ground floor and first floor were found rundown.

Fire service’s first rescue team members, after returning from the spot, said that they found a huge hole while boundary walls and floors broke down badly.

They said that the pillars of the explosion affected building were dangerously damaged.

The officials said that the injured people were immediately rushed and admitted to different nearby hospitals including Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Sheikh Hasina National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute and Sir Salimullah Medical College Hospital.

Dhaka Medical College Hospital director Nazmul Haque said that 18 bodies were kept in the hospital at about 11:00pm.

He said that 14 people were brought dead to the hospital and four other people died in the hospital while undergoing treatment.

The DMCH director said that the victims were brought to his hospital with explosion related burns and multiple injuries and fractures.

He said that over 60 others were being given treatment in different sections of the hospital several of them were critical.

Many other were also given first aid at the emergency department, officials at the hospital said.

Health minister Zahid Maleque, who visited DMCH after the incident, said that most of the deaths were caused due to huge bleeding for head injuries.

Swapon Sheikh, uncle of deceased Nazmul Hossain, 25, said that Nazmul was an employee at Anika Agency, a sanitary shop, was a resident of Bangshal.

The burn institute coordinator Samanta Lal Sen said that seven of the injured ones were admitted to his institute. ‘None of them is out of danger.’

A good number of people had been searching for their near and dear ones from one hospital to another.

Fire service in cooperation with Bangladesh Army, police and volunteers continued rescue operation till writing this report at about 11:30pm.

Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha chairman Md Anisur Rahman Miah said that the explosion might happen for gas stored in the underground of the building.

‘Experts were called to investigate the incident,’ he said.

One of the three owners of the building, Md Motiur Rahman, said that over 20 shops of sanitary materials are housed in the ground to second floor of the building. ‘Four other floors from the third to the sixth are used for residential purpose,’ he said.

Motiur and his two brothers live on the third floor of the building.

On March 5, at least three people were killed and nearly 70 injured as parts of a three-storey building collapsed and caught fire following an explosion near the Science Laboratory crossing in Dhaka.

On March 4, at least seven people were killed and 30 others injured in a massive explosion in an oxygen plant in Kadam Rasul area of Sitakunda upazila in Chattogram.

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Old Dhaka Chemical Relocation in Limbo

Justice elusive four years after Chawkbazar fire

by Rashad Ahamad

The victims of the on February 20, 2019 Chawkbazar fire incident are yet to get justice, though four years have elapsed since the tragedy took place in the Old Dhaka locality, killing 71 people and injuring scores others.

Probe reports said that the fire originated from a chemical warehouse at Wahed Mansion, a commercial building on Nanda Kumar Dutta Lane at Churihatta, barely 2.5 kilometres away from Nimtoli where 124 people perished in an inferno from a chemical explosion on June 3, 2010.

The Nimtoli fire prompted the government, following expert opinions, to decide to relocate hazardous chemical depots and plastic factories from the congested Old Dhaka locations.

But the government’s relocation move remains in limbo, 12 years after the initiative was taken in the wake of the Nimtoli inferno.

The Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation is implementing two projects to permanently relocate plastic units and chemical depots from the residential areas but the hazardous business operations are still continuing in such  areas as the relocation projects are far from complete.

Officials of the projects said that the projects will need at least three more years to complete as the land development for the projects are yet to be done.

Relatives of Chawkbazar fire dead said that though a case was filed a day after the 2019 blaze in that connection justice still looked nowhere near.

Assistant public prosecutor Md Mazharul Hoque said that the Eighth Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge Court framed charges against eight people on January 31, 2022, nearly a year after police submitted a charge sheet in the case filed by son of a dead victim.

‘There are 167 witnesses in the case, but none was still examined while all the accused are on bail,’ he said.

The court set March 14 for starting testimonies, he said.

On February, 15, 2022, after three years of investigation, the Chawkbazar police pressed charges against eight people, including the two owners of Wahed Mansion — Mohammad Hasan Sultan and Mohammad Hossain Sultan alias Sohel.

Other accused are chemical warehouse owners Imtiaz Ahmed, Mozammel Iqbal, Mozaffar Uddin, Mohammad Jawad Atiq, Mohammad Nabil and Kashif.

Md Asifur Rahman Anik, son of fire dead Mohammad Jummon and plaintiff in the case, said on Sunday that he had now little hope to get justice as government officials and public representatives, over the years, repeatedly ‘cheated’ them.

‘We did not get anything of what was promised for us,’ he said with frustration.

Anik said in despair that there would be no justice as symptoms were clear with police submitting the charge sheet after three years while the court took another year to frame charges against the accused.

‘While justice is being delayed, all the accused are on bail and the building owners have rebuilt the building and rented it out,’ he said.

He further noted that families were not compensated and rehabilitated though the Dhaka South City Corporation authorities had promised to give job to one of each victim families.

Mentioning that the DSCC had listed 31 names from 69 families for providing jobs, he said that the file was now reportedly missing from the city corporation office.

The local MP as well as the prime minister had declared that the victim families would receive compensation but nothing was given to the families who have lost their earning members, he went on to point out.

In 2021, the DSCC prepared a list of nearly 2,000 hazardous business units in densely populated areas of Old Dhaka. The businesses dealt in, among others, methylene, perfumeries, food flavours, machine oils, acids, colour flavours, tarpin, pyramine, barley, soda, glycerin, citric salt, gypsum.

Locals said that the number would be much higher.

According to the Bangladesh Environment Conservation Rules 1997, no industrial units using hazardous chemicals or goods can operate in and around a residential area.

But hazardous businesses continue to operate as usual in Old Dhaka localities, residents said.

Bangladesh Chemical and Perfumery Merchants Association president Nurul Mostafa said that businesspeople were pressuring the government to complete the relocation projects as they were willing to shift their businesses from residential areas but ‘the BSCIC has failed to complete the projects even after all these years’.

‘We want to move, but I don’t think that the chemical relocation project will be completed before 2025,’ he further said.

He blamed the BSCIC for the failure and demanded that the city corporation renew their trade licences as renewals remained suspended for years, hampering trading and banking activities of businesses.

During a visit to the Chawkbazar area on Wednesday, chemical, perfumery and plastic businesses were seen running on the ground floor of most of the residential buildings while Wahed Mansion was found renovated and rented to different banks and business.

Urban experts and activists have long been urging the government to relocate all hazardous businesses from residential areas in Old Dhaka, particularly after the 2010 Nimtoli fire horror.

In 2015, the government adopted a project to relocate plastic factories to Keraniganj but as the local people protested against the Plastic Industrial Park Project because of the project area being a crowded place, the BSCIC shifted the project to Munshiganj. But it failed to acquire the 50 acres of land needed for the project.

BSCIC Plastic Industrial Park Project director Md Anis Uddin said that according to a ministry decision in November 2022, the project was shifted once again to a place beside the Dhaka–Dohar road.

‘According to the new plan, the implementation of the Tk 218.16 crore project, envisaging 365 plots, will be finished by December 2025,’ he said.

The paper works for the project are yet to be done while commencing the physical work is a distant matter, said business leaders.

Plastic Goods Manufacturers and Exporters Association vice-president KM Iqbal Hossain said that disputes concerning acquired lands created further complications in the implementation of the project.

Meanwhile, in 2018, the government took another project to relocate the chemical depots to Sirajdikhan of Munshiganj, scheduled to be implemented by July 1, 2021.

Amid a slow implementation of this project, the Chawkbazar fire incident took place.

After the Chawkbazar fire, the government, on a temporary basis, asked the chemical and plastic businesses to shift to Shyampur in Dhaka and Tongi in Gazipur until the permanent places were ready.

BSCIC Chemical Industrial Park Project director Muhammad Hafizur Rahman said on Sunday that the physical work progress of the project was 46 per cent as the land acquisition was complete while the boundary wall construction and earth filling were in progress.

According to the revised project, the relocation would cost Tk 1,454.80 crore on 310 acres of land, scheduled to be completed by June 2024 as the earlier deadline of June 30, 2022 was missed.

However, businesspeople are sceptical also about the new deadline as the current progress is, too, very slow. They pointed out that the project deadline was extended several times.

While the relocation of the hazardous businesses is being delayed, Old Dhaka dwellers are going through repeated disasters.

At least six people were burnt to death as a fire gutted a building, again in the Chawkbazar area that housed a restaurant and a plastic toy warehouse, on August 8, 2022.

At least four people were killed and 25 others injured as a fire broke out at a chemical warehouse in a residential building at Armanitola in the old part of Dhaka on April 23, 2021.

On February 1, the High Court directed the government to submit a list of buildings that housed chemical warehouses, shops and factories by April 17 after hearing a writ petition over the matter.

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54.64 per cent of Dhaka high-rise buildings at fire risk

by Rashad Ahamad

At least 37.87 per cent of high-rises across Bangladesh are at fire risk while the figure is 54.64 per cent in the capital city Dhaka.

The Department of Fire Service and Civil Defense revealed it in its annual report for 2022 on Monday.

In the fire service genre, any building above 20 metres in height is called a high-rise which is on the ground a seven storied building.

The report stated that fire inspectors inspected 5,869 multi-storied buildings—1,337 public and 4,532 private ones—between January 2 and December 31 in 2022 and found 2,223 of the buildings at risk of fire. At least 617 of the buildings are at high risk, said the report.

In Dhaka, 268 fire inspectors physically inspected 1,162 high-rises, including 497 government buildings, and found 54.64 per cent of them or 635 buildings as risky and as 136 highly risky.

Fire service deputy director in Dhaka Dinomoni Sharma said that after the inspections the fire inspectors informed building owners about the issue with some recommendations to improve the situation if possible or advised them to abandon the buildings.

‘Fire safety condition is, however, yet to be improved,’ he said.

Fire inspectors cannot shut down any building, he said, adding that a mobile court led by a magistrate could do it.

According to the Fire Service report, 24,102 fire incidents took place across the country in 2022 which killed 98 people including 13 firefighters and damaged goods worth Tk 342 crore.

The 13 firefighters were killed in the industrial fire.

Fire service investigations found that 9,275 or 38.48 per cent of the fire incidents were caused by electrical short-circuit.

The report said that of the fire incidents, 16 per cent were originated from cigarettes and 13.98 per cent from different types of stoves.

The highest 6,558 fire incidents were recorded in residential buildings while 241 export-oriented factories caught fire in 2022.

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology civil engineering professor Raquib Ahsan said that the existence of a huge number of risky buildings continued as the monitoring mechanisms to check fire safety were not functioning in the ground.

He said that the buildings below seven-storey kept being ignored although fire risks are everywhere.

‘There are huge violations of fire safety issues in the country, but no exemplary action is taken against them,’ he said.

He suggested reforms of the Bangladesh National Building Code, Fire Prevention and Fighting Act and Building Construction Act and strict implications of those to ensure fire safety for all.

He also suggested reform of the agencies responsible to ensure fire safety as well.

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