The government has moved to permit heavy industry on open space beside the Buriganga and to lift the requirement to protect strategic flood-flow areas, clearing the way for housing developments to be built on them. The changes to the Detailed Area Plan (DAP) were made without consulting stakeholders, according to sources familiar with the process.

Urban planners warn that the decision by the Ministry of Housing and Public Works will strain the capital’s environment, its drainage capacity and its liveability. Approving heavy industry on an environmentally fragile stretch of the Buriganga in particular casts doubt on the government’s conservation goals, given that existing plants already discharge untreated liquid waste and chemicals directly into the river, leaving the surrounding area severely polluted.

Dhaka has already been rendered virtually unliveable by dense settlement, inadequate public services and unplanned urban growth. The DAP drawn up in 2022–23 sought to ease that pressure by lowering population density in crowded areas, extending services, protecting waterbodies and open spaces, and keeping natural flood paths unobstructed.

Amid objections from housing developers and landowners, however, the now-ousted Awami League government had altered the rules governing building height and density. Further amendments followed under the interim administration, which also revised the definitions of flood-flow areas and several other categories.

The latest revisions, planners say, go further than any of their predecessors.

A notification dated October 14, signed by Most Lutfun Nahar Nazim, deputy secretary of Administration Branch-2 at the housing ministry, sets out three amendments to the DAP. Planners allege they were adopted without Rajuk’s technical assessment or any attempt to consult stakeholders.

Land in Ailbohar mouza recorded under dag numbers 1047, 1048 and 1050 was previously designated as open space. The revised DAP reclassifies it for heavy industry. Because the site lies beside the Buriganga, approval from the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority is required, and the amendment provides for Dhaka South City Corporation’s consent or opinion to be sought where necessary. The “halot” classification is to be preserved until corrected in the city survey, and any construction must comply with the relevant rules and codes and obtain Rajuk’s approval.

A second amendment offers a 0.5 floor area ratio incentive on plots of five katha or more in the Jhilmil and Purbachal project areas where construction plans receive approval within the next six months.

A third states that nothing stands in the way of housing schemes in disputed flood-flow areas identified in the DAP.

Planners note that open space is normally maintained along riverbanks, bringing the public closer to the waterfront. Abu Musa Md Abdullah, an urban planner involved in drafting the DAP, told Bonik Barta: “Some areas in the DAP are designated simultaneously as residential land use and as a water-flow overlay or flood-flow zone. We recommended that such contested areas be preserved with their flood-flow characteristics intact. The new amendment does the opposite.”

Abdullah added that if a flood-flow area could be approved for construction simply by showing it as residential land use, the natural flow of floodwater would be obstructed. Waterlogging would worsen and surrounding areas would face heightened flood risk.

“Dhaka’s existing problems, waterlogging and the heat island effect among them, could become more severe. Adequate hydrological and hydraulic surveys, a flood risk assessment and consideration of the public interest are therefore necessary before such restrictions are altered. Otherwise, city residents will bear the long-term damage,” he said.

Planners have a further objection: the reclassification of open space beside the Buriganga for heavy industry. In their view, open space is most needed in densely populated, service-starved areas such as Jurain-Shyampur. Permitting heavy industry there in place of open space would expose local residents to greater environmental and public health risks.

The DAP defines heavy industry as operations capable of generating noise pollution, vibration and heavy smoke, rendering life uncomfortable in surrounding areas. The plan also stresses the need to avoid the environmental pollution and public health hazards that heavy industry near residential areas can cause.

The Buriganga River was declared an Ecologically Critical Area (ECA) in 2009 under the Bangladesh Environment Conservation Act, 1995. Such a designation prohibits the establishment of polluting industries or institutions, activities harmful to aquatic life, the discharge of sewage and liquid effluent into rivers and waterbodies and solid waste disposal. Questions are also being raised over how far approving heavy industry beside the Buriganga is compatible with environmental regulations.

The Jurain-Shyampur area ranks among Dhaka’s most deprived. With playing fields, parks and footpaths already scarce, residents view the decision to allow heavy industry on the open space as discrimination against them. Sacrificing open space for industrial use where securing even basic civic amenities presents a major challenge undermines efforts to improve the quality of local life, they argue.

Jurain resident Farzana Tasnim Borsha told Bonik Barta: “Jurain-Shyampur is one of the most neglected areas in Dhaka. There are no fields, no parks, not even footpaths to walk on. People here suffer waterlogging and air pollution all year round, and fall ill with dengue too. Approving heavy industry on open space shows that the right of people in this area to live healthily is not being given importance. We strongly condemn it.”

Planners also fear that the three decisions taken together — shrinking open space, weakening protection for flood-flow areas and opening the riverbank to heavy industry — could deepen Dhaka’s environmental crisis. Without transparency, technical assessment and stakeholder input in amending the DAP, they argue, the capital’s long-term liveability will be hard to preserve.

Dr Muhammad Ariful Islam, president of the Bangladesh Institute of Planners (BIP), voiced anger at the amendments being made without due process. Successive governments have revised the DAP, he said, but commercial interests have been prioritised each time over the public good.

“The Awami League government did it twice in a year and a half, the interim government once, and the current government has changed the DAP before a year is out, without following any rules,” Islam told Bonik Barta. “Every change has put business interests ahead of the public interest. At least stakeholders were consulted before. This time nobody involved even knows the DAP has been changed.”

He added: “We didn’t expect a government that came to power promising to protect the environment to approve heavy industry on open space and housing schemes in flood-flow areas. If this continues, planning will become a farce and public money will be wasted.”

Open space cannot be treated merely as vacant land, planners say. In a densely populated metropolis, such areas help maintain ecological balance, regulate ambient temperature, absorb rainwater and afford residents room for recreation. Any further loss of open space in areas such as Jurain-Shyampur in particular would make it even harder to offer residents an alternative.

Dr Md Mosleh Uddin Hasan, a professor in Buet’s urban and regional planning department, told Bonik Barta: “On one side Dhaka is sinking under waterlogging; on the other, a decision has been taken to approve housing schemes in flood-flow areas. And now heavy industry is being allowed on the banks of the Buriganga. The revised DAP does retain the condition of BIWTA clearance, but we have long experience of how such safeguards are circumvented.”

“The people of Jurain-Shyampur cannot breathe properly because of pollution, and now they are being pushed into the path of heavy industry’s pollution. These decisions do nothing but threaten public health and add to public suffering,” Hasan said.

Urban planning experts say long-term frameworks such as the DAP are essential to addressing Dhaka’s liveability crisis. Repeated amendments will undermine the plan’s purpose if the public interest, environmental impact and technical assessments are not properly considered. The decision to permit heavy industry beside the Buriganga and allow housing projects in disputed flood-flow areas therefore goes beyond a change in land use. It raises concerns about the capital’s environment, drainage system and future liveability.

Rajuk Chairman Engineer Md Reazul Islam said he was unaware of the latest amendments. The ministry should not change DAP rules without Rajuk’s input, he said, noting that such revisions require the recommendation of Rajuk’s technical committee and adherence to the prescribed procedure.

“The DAP has a technical committee for adding or removing rules,” the chairman told Bonik Barta. “That committee recommends proposed amendments. We put the recommendation to the authority’s meeting, and then the board discusses it. Stakeholder views are taken where needed. How the ministry changed the DAP rules without following any of this, I do not know.”