It is a familiar scene that during the rainy season most of the city roads are submerged due to heavy rain, wreaking havoc on the city life. Even a little rain causes serious problems and creates water-logging.
Environmentalists and city planners blamed policymakers for this situation. They said, this situation normally occurs due to unplanned urbanisation, insufficient drainage system, blockage of the drainages, filling up the canals and lakes and water bodies in the city, lack of long-time plan, corruption, and lack of consciousness among inhabitants.
Heavy rain in the city and other parts disrupted routine life and communications of the people on Monday. The rain submerged different parts of the city, as many streets went under knee-deep to ankle-deep water, creating traffic jam and immense sufferings for the dwellers of Dhaka city.
Beginning early morning, the rain in the city started to fall heavily around 9:00am and continued for about two hours. Tailbacks were reported from many city points, including Kakrail, Mouchak, Malibagh, Shahjahanpur, Shantinagar, Nayapaltan, Motijheel, Rampura, Karwanbazar, Mirpur, Kazipara, Shewrapar, Shyamoli, Kathalbagan and Green Road, as the as the clogged drains failed to flush out the rainwaters.
Office going people and school children experienced immense suffering due to non-availability of transports. The rickshaws and CNG-run auto-rickshaw drivers charged excessive fares, taking advantage of the rain-hit roads. Most of the rickshaw pullers refused to go to the destination. As a result, many commuters walked to reach their destinations.
A total of 40 millimetres of rainfall was recorded in the city in six hours from morning to noon. According to Bangladesh Meteorological Department, the rainfall is likely to mark a fall all over the country, including Dhaka, today (Tuesday).
Talking to The New Nation on Monday, environmentalists and city planners said that water logging is a very common problem in the city during the monsoon period. “Lack of rule of law, unplanned urbanisation, lack of long-time plan and corruption are responsible for the water logging in the city,” said Prof Nazrul Islam, former chairman of University Grants Commission.
Prof Nazrul, also an eminent city planner, also said that the Dhaka City Corporations (DCCs), Water Supply & Sewerage Authority (WASA) and Rajdhani Unnoyan Kortipokkya (Rajuk) are responsible for mitigating the problem, but they are failing to resolve the problem. He suggested for taking long-time plan, increasing skill of the manpower. He also suggested the intuitions to recover the vanished canals of the city.
Sharif Jamil, Joint-Secretary of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan (BAPA), said that heavy downpour caused severe water-logging in absence of proper drainage system, lack of waste management and sewerage system and poor plan. He said, the land grabbers in patronization of the political high-ups fill up the low-laying lands as well as canals and thereby obstruct the flow of waters, which is one of the causes for water logging. Another major cause for narrowing the channels of the canals is dumping of solid wastes, he said. DCCs have failed to provide facilities for dumping of millions of tonnes of solid waste generated each day. The city dwellers are equally responsible for dumping solid waste into the canals. Sharif Jamil, who was recently elected the council member of International Water Keeper Alliance, suggested reclamation of all canals and low-laying areas from the illegal land grabbers to keep the drainage system functional.
The canals of Dhaka used to be the connecting channels of the rivers. But most of these canals have vanished due to a variety of reasons: unplanned urbanisation, encroachment, lack of co-ordination between the government agencies and lack of maintenance to the system. The few canals left are on the verge of extinction as they have lost their flow, blocked by either roads or unauthorised structures. As a result, each year, the city dwellers face acute water logging during the rainy season.
The WASA, DCCs and Rajuk are trying to recover the canals from illegal grabbing, but they are failing. Admitting the above-mentioned problem, an official of WASA said that they are trying to mitigate the problem through recovering the canals, introducing planned urbanisation and talking long-time plan.
Echoing the same as Prof Nazrul, the BAPA leader said there was not long-time plan about the city. In 1960’s, a city plan was taken for the next 50 years, but the population increased 17 to 22 doubles from the estimated figure. So, it is clear there was no long-time plan or the plan was faulty.
