Prime Minister Tarique Rahman mandated intensified cross-agency coordination on Thursday to combat ecological degradation and restore urban water bodies across the capital's Gulshan, Banani, Baridhara, Niketan, and Dhanmondi zones.

Chairing a high-level review session inside the Cabinet Division conference room at the Secretariat, the Prime Minister prioritized halting direct sewage inflows, institutionalizing routine refuse clearance, deploying localized sewage treatment plants (STPs), and accelerating remediation workflows by designated authorities.

Discussions featured granular assessments of prevailing waterbody conditions, pollution vectors, and revitalization blueprints, alongside progress evaluations of Dhaka South City Corporation's ongoing cleanup, sludge dredging, and pilot interventions at Dhanmondi Lake.

Briefings revealed that Gulshan Lake contamination stems from six primary and six secondary wastewater entry channels.

To tackle these vulnerabilities, a specialized technical panel submitted phased short-, medium-, and long-term action plans, emphasizing the complete sealing of sewage discharge conduits, mandatory installation of building-grade STPs, and a comprehensive underground sewer network audit, alongside conditional wastewater utility billing across Gulshan-Banani and catchment basin expansion for enhanced drainage.

Scaling mechanical surface sanitation, the Prime Minister instructed authorities to scale up floating debris-skimming mechanical craft from two units to 10.

Additional operational directives mandated bed-level sludge dredging via floating excavators paired with sustained day-to-day maintenance, mandatory STP retrofitting within statutory windows under the Dhaka Metropolitan Building Construction Rules, 2025, and joint Dhaka WASA-Dhaka North City Corporation sweeps to sever illegal stormwater-to-sewer cross-connections from residential and commercial properties.

Further ecological restoration measures reviewed included aerator deployment to elevate dissolved oxygen, combined bio-chemical odour neutralization protocols, and structural sanitation network modernization.

In parallel reporting, officials noted that RAJUK has deployed five dedicated maintenance squads comprising 42 personnel to safeguard and upkeep lakes under its jurisdiction.

Participants included Housing and Public Works Minister Zakaria Taher, State Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Mir Shahe Alam, Dhaka South City Corporation Administrator Md. Abdus Salam, Dhaka North City Corporation Administrator Md. Shafiqul Islam Khan, Prime Minister's Principal Secretary ABM Abdus Sattar, and senior ministry delegates.