Author(s)

Swarnali Mahmood¹, Fatema Tuz Johra Nourin¹, Ayesha Siddika¹, Tazeen Fatima Khan²

¹Institute of Water and Flood Management, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
²Department of Soil, Water and Environment, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

A survey on different aspects of Buriganga River encroachment was conducted in a 300 meter long encroached part of the river located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. A total of 100 respondents were surveyed and three Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were arranged prior to the semi-structured questionnaire survey. It was observed that almost all of the respondents migrated to the study area. The majority of the respondents had better business opportunity (69.23%) as the cause of encroachment. Significant portions of the respondents occupying the encroached area were found to be landless (36.84%), small businessmen (31.58%) and people with political affluence (26.32%). Major portions (23.33%) of the encroached land were used for industrial development as well as housing and developmental projects. Negative health impact (40%) was found to be the main adverse effect of encroachment of the river. Other adverse effects included economic loss through obliteration of fisheries (35.71%), scarcity of clean water (32.14%), reduction of aesthetic value of the surroundings (25%) etc. For the protection of the river, the majority of the respondents opted for relocation of the industries (46.15%) and enforcement of strict rules and regulations (38.46%).

Buriganga River, Encroachment, Respondents, Questionnaire Survey

Mahmood, S. , Nourin, F. , Siddika, A. and Khan, T. (2017) Encroachment of the Buriganga River in Bangladesh. Journal of Minerals and Materials Characterization and Engineering, 5, 266-273. doi: 10.4236/jmmce.2017.55022.