Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) mayor, Sayeed Khokon, said that all attempts to occupy canals will be resisted vigorously.

The mayor made the comment on Monday (Jan 21) afternoon, while visiting the Kutubkhali canal in Postogola.

“Of the 93 km of canals which have come under DSCC jurisdiction due to new union parishads, 74 km have been recovered by the army.”

Any illegal occupier, irrespective of party allegiance, will be dealt with strongly, he stated.

Identifying waterlogging as the main problem of unions, he said, “The army’s engineering department is already working on this.”

Currently, army is working to bring back the navigability of the Kutubkhali canal, said the mayor, adding, “After cleaning the canals become dirty fast because we dump household garbage in them, this has to stop.”

Underlining a plan to work to raise citizens’ awareness, the mayor said, “When the transparent water of the canals fall into the rivers, this area will see planned urbanization.”

There is plan to operate water taxis on the canals, he said.