Dhaka consistently ranks among the world’s most climate-vulnerable cities. With more intense rainfall, the risk of flash floods grows every year. Canals act as natural buffers, absorbing excess stormwater and channeling it into rivers. When they are blocked or encroached upon, water has nowhere to go—leading to hours or even days of waterlogging.
Restoring canals is more than an urban beautification project; it is a low-cost, nature-based adaptation strategy. While Dhaka invests billions in pumps and drainage systems, studies show that reviving just 15 canals could solve up to 80% of waterlogging problems.
A Collaborative Effort:
In the middle of this crisis, Berger Paints Bangladesh and Footsteps Bangladesh started the #CholoKhaalBachai# campaign. It is a volunteer-led effort to bring canals back to life. Their latest work focused on the Bottola Mazar Canal in Hazaribagh, which had become little more than an open garbage pit.
In just 12 days, more than thousand volunteers and residents removed 35 truckloads of waste. For the first time in years, water could flow again. The cleanup reduced flooding, improved air quality, and lowered health risks for hundreds of families.
“This is not charity—it is survival,” one local leader said. “We cannot afford to lose our canals.”
