The reckless manner with which canals have been grabbed and filled up in the capital city can be likened to choking the blood in arteries of a human being. If there ever was a wakeup call, it was September 1 when the city literally went under water after a few hours of heavy downpour. Nothing could drive home the point more than a city being robbed of free water bodies and canals. This paper has been crying hoarse for decades on the issue of the wilful neglect of authorities in addressing the issue. If we want to see Bangladesh transformed into a middle income nation, we had better do something about the country's capital which, at present, is in a state of dysfunction.

The indiscriminate grabbing and poor maintenance of some two dozen canals stretching some 65 km is playing havoc with the city's storm drainage system. Decades of negligence have left the field clear for unscrupulous interests to wilfully occupy and fill up floodplains. The indiscriminate dumping of solid waste into canals is an ongoing practice, which apparently do not catch the attention of officials of the two city corporations.

September 1 drove home the point that we have reached the point of no return. Immediate steps are needed to recover and revitalise the canals. Now that we have two mayors in office, they must live upto their electoral promises for cleaning up a city that is becoming unliveable. We do not want to see our beloved city be ranked as the second least liveable city in the world as per the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) Global Liveability Index next year.