State committed to protect East Kolkata Wetlands: CM

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Sunday that the state government is committed to protect the East Kolkata Wetlands, on the occasion of World Wetlands Day.

"Today is #WorldWetlandsDay. Our govt is committed to protecting the East Kolkata Wetlands, which is a Ramsar site and all other wetlands in #Bangla as they play a crucial role in maintaining environmental balance," she tweeted.

After coming to power in 2011, Banerjee gave special emphasis on the protection of wetlands across the state. The civic bodies had been instructed to take stringent measures in case of attempts by builders to fill up waterbodies to make room for structures on the reclaimed land.

Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has prepared a list of waterbodies in every ward and in many areas where the waterbodies had been filled up, they have been dug up once again.

East Kolkata Wetland is unique in its own way. Kolkata is the only metropolitan city which does not have a sewage treatment plant because of the East Kolkata Wetland. It serves as the lungs to the city.

Two channels of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) called the Dry Weather Flow Channel (DWF) and Storm Weather Flow Channel (SWF) offload sewer water into East Kolkata Wetland. The sewer water serves as the food of the fishes and algae. The water gets purified and is then taken to the Bay of Bengal basin.

After the CPI(M) came to power in KMC with the Member, Mayor in Council (MMiC) system in 1985, it allowed thousands of wetlands to be filled up to make room for new buildings.

Thousands of buildings came up in Behala, Jadavpur and Garden Reach, known as added areas in KMC's parlance. Six or seven storey buildings came up on narrow roads in Behala and Jadavpur. The number of assessees in the added areas is more than proper Kolkata, from Wards 1 to 100.

A large portion of East Kolkata Wetland was filled up by builders in connivance with the party. The South 24-Parganas Fish Producers' Association led by Premtosh Ghosh and Shakti Sarkar had approached the then Urban Development minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya in late 1980s, but he looked the other way.

Taking advantage of his silence, the builders went ahead with the projects, which led to the shrinking of the waterbodies.

However, because of KMC's intense vigilance, no further damage has been caused to the East Kolkata Wetland.