Move to free Gulshan Lake of pollution

A team of experts will be formed to analyse the kind and extent of pollution in Gulshan Lake and devise means of purifying its water.

The decision came at a joint meeting of Gulshan Society (GS) and Paribesh Bachao Andolan (Poba) at the park on road No-63 in Gulshan yesterday.

They also decided that Gulshan Lake Park would come under biological management to make its water congenial to aquatic life.

In March 2008, the GS got a periodic lease for maintenance of the park and the lake from Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk).

Just a week ago, a GS sub-committee on the lake management led by Rahmatullah convinced the Dhaka City Corporation to find a bypass sewer as three huge drainage outlets had long been dumping untreated liquid waste in the lake.

Rahmatullah said, “We will drain out water from the lake, dig out layers of toxic wastes from the lake bed and fill it with fresh water next winter.”

The experts involved will examine chemical and aquatic components in the water to determine the kind of treatment required for the purification. It will make the lake biologically symbiotic and productive, he said.

GS president CM Shafi Sami said they would work with Poba for the purification and biological management of the lake.

This stretch of lake is likely to have toxic contamination and metallic wastes, as untreated liquid wastes used to flow into it, said Poba chairman Abu Naser Khan.

A multi-disciplinary team of experts comprising chemists and biologists is required to bring this stagnant water body under biological management, he said, adding that the initiative may be a pioneering example for purification of water bodies.

He said vice-chancellor of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) would coordinate the experts' work.

Prof Mahmudur Rahman of Dhaka University Psychology department, botanist Md Jashim Uddin and aquatic plant expert SMA Rashid spoke, among others, at the discussion chaired by Shafi Sami.