INTERMITTENT heavy rainfall in the two big cities of the country has brought them closer to the breaking point. On one hand the rains worsened by gusty wind is creating unimaginable water logging and traffic jams, while on the other unplanned and undisciplined ongoing city development programmes have created innumerable obstacles within the cities’ roads and communication systems. For Dhaka, it is now paying a very high cost for development by inflicting unending misery on its citizens. And for Chittagong, the stagnant water has even entered many residential homes and industrial units – leaving people marooned. Gifted with a natural drainage system while having a long network of canals, the country’s commercial capital Chittagong, was not supposed to have been what it is now. Lack of maintenance and encroachment of canals have clogged them, causing unwarranted urban flooding. Businesses were also hit hard as trading activities in Chaktai and Khatunganj as wholesale markets there went under ankle-deep to knee-deep water.
Sufferings caused due to poor drainage facilities and highly unskilled traffic management systems are not new, but we fail to understand why the deteriorating situation is not being tackled despite innumerable government initiatives and promises?
With or without the rains Dhaka and Chittagong’s conditions have nearly reached the failing point.
We don’t want to believe that the Prime Minister should intervene directly to engage in each and every single crisis, but worsening situations of our big cities demands so. Since almost nothing is happening to ease the lives of our citizens, it’s right now when her government’s high-ups should act fast.
Lastly, our politicians in power should stop defining the country’s exaggerated development scenario in terms of 6 plus percent GDP growth, over $ 30 billion foreign exchange reserve and billions of dollars remittance inflow. If the public’s overall condition outside their home remains at a pitiable state the value of such immense financial growth and development becomes insignificant. Domestically, lot needs to be done for making the city peoples’ lives comfortable.
Prevent our cities from collapsing.
