Though a number of initiatives have been taken over the years to address Chattogram city’s waterlogging problem, many of those have apparently gone down the drain due to a lack of coordinated efforts by the government bodies concerned. Town planners and experts for long asked the government for integrated efforts to solve the worst challenges caused by the downpour and the influence of tides. Chattogram City Corporation (CCC) and Chattogram Development Authority (CDA) spent millions of dollars to address the problem in the last few years. However, money spent in an unplanned way brought no results.
Water bodies and open spaces are shrinking due to unplanned development; as a result, rainwater cannot recede, causing waterlogging. The need for dredging drains, canals, and the Karnaphuli River on a regular basis is optimum. Also, canals and drains have to be recovered from the clutches of the grabbers. Besides, tidal water adds to rainwater. Moreover, an onrush of water from upstream carries sand, which contributes to filling up the drains and canals. Moreover, utility services, including gas, water and landlines, running through drains, have to be removed, which requires coordination from different concerned bodies.
Regular waterlogging damages large quantities of perishable commodities, including onions, garlic, rice, lentils, sugar, tea, and spices after water floods into the shops and warehouses at the wholesale markets. The logging forced traders to raise the height of the door still of both shops and warehouses so as to prevent water from infiltration. However, most of the efforts ended in a fiasco as water ripped through inundating 80 per cent of the shops and warehouses and destroying a sizable number of the perishable commodities.
The curse of waterlogging has severely hurt the export-oriented businesses of Chattogram as well. Thus, entrepreneurs in the export-oriented apparel sector anticipate a sharp rise in production costs owing to the problem. The problem is seemingly unending as the government is in daydream fantasy for constructing irrelevant megaprojects that exacerbated the waterlogging.
