People should see ponds, canals not as past, but as part of future
Once upon a time, Dhaka was a city of canals, ponds and rivers. Today, that aquatic network is disappearing under the pressure of encroachment and development. To the present generation, that image of Dhaka perhaps sounds like a tale, as most of its canals and ponds have now vanished into thin air. Journalist and writer Helemul Alam has been consistently working for over two decades on urban life, the environment and civic crises. His two recently published research-based books — “Oasis Lost to Urban Sprawl: An In-Depth Look into Dhaka’s Lost Ponds” and “Dhaka’s Canals on Their Dying Breath: An In-Depth Look at How the Capital's Waterways Are Being Choked” — have earned readers’ praise as significant documents of urban history and the environmental movement. Recently, on behalf of Views Bangladesh, General Secretary of the Urban Development Journalists Forum-Bangladesh (UDJFB) Faisal Khan interviewed him about his journalism, field research, childhood memories and commitment to protecting waterbodies in the capital.