A Correspondent :
The low-lying areas of Chittagong city went under knee- to waist-deep water after only 48.3 millimetres of rain in 12 hours on Monday. Subsequently, the dwellers of the port city had to suffer a lot.
Areas like Chawk Bazar, Bakalia, Muradpur, Bahaddarhat, Sholoshahar Gate No 2, Kapasgola, Badurtola and Shulakbahor remained inundated.
The same situation prevailed in Bibirhat, Agrabad CDA Residential Area, Probartak Intersection, Katalganj, Bepari Para, Muhuri Para and Halishahar Shantibagh areas.
Commuters had to struggle to get transports as vehicles remained stranded on roads for hours.
Poor drainage and waste management systems added to the sufferings with many blaming the Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) for its failure to address the water-logging problem.
The Meteorological Office in Patenga recorded 48.3mm of rainfall in the city till noon, said Sheikh Harunur Rashid, an officer at the met office.
Manzur Morshed, a banker, who was going to visit his ailing mother at Chottagram Medical College Hospital, boarded a rickshaw near his residence in Polytechnic area.
The passenger could not but get off the rickshaw in Gate No-2 area as there was waist-deep water on the road.
Manzur had to stay beneath a flyover for several hours as he had no scope to move forward.
“We elected the present mayor as he in his election manifesto promised to address the waterlogging problem. But now absence of adequate actions frustrates us,” he said.
Like Manzur, schoolteacher Sanjida Kabir and many more remained standing in the area.
Similarly, Monirul Islam, a Chittagong University student, took more than an hour to reach the rail station from his Bahaddarhat residence where it takes only 15 minutes to get there.
Lt Col (retd) Mohiuddin Ahmed, chief engineer of CCC, said Chittagong Development Authority has taken a mega project to solve the crisis. From now on, this is not the responsibility of the city corporation, he added.
Water borne diseases have spread in Halishahar area in an epidemic form.
Some three people died of jaundice while 178 more are diagnosed with diarrhoea and jaundice in last two months in the area.
Dr Azizur Rahman Siddique, Civil Surgeon of Chattogram, told journalists “We’ve visited the area after getting information that three persons died of jaundice.
We’ve distributed one lakh water purifying tablets among the locals. Hepatitis E virus infects liver that can cause liver swelling or jaundice.”
“Most of the patients of jaundice recover easily within two months. Usually it doesn’t lead to long-term illness or liver damage like some other forms of hepatitis. But hepatitis E can be dangerous for pregnant women or anyone with weak immune systems, including the elderly or people who are ill,” Azizur said adding that scarcity of pure water and consuming unhygienic foods are prime the reasons of the disease.
Talking with journalists , Dr Selim Akhtar Chowdhury, Chief Medical Officer of CCC, said, “we are trying to collect data of the people who were admitted in the hospitals.”
However local people claimed that the leakage in WASA pipelines is spreading the virus.
When contacted, WASA Managing Director AKM Faizullah denied the allegation and claimed that water supplied by WASA is clean and pure.
The low-lying areas of Chittagong city went under knee- to waist-deep water after only 48.3 millimetres of rain in 12 hours on Monday. Subsequently, the dwellers of the port city had to suffer a lot.
Areas like Chawk Bazar, Bakalia, Muradpur, Bahaddarhat, Sholoshahar Gate No 2, Kapasgola, Badurtola and Shulakbahor remained inundated.
The same situation prevailed in Bibirhat, Agrabad CDA Residential Area, Probartak Intersection, Katalganj, Bepari Para, Muhuri Para and Halishahar Shantibagh areas.
Commuters had to struggle to get transports as vehicles remained stranded on roads for hours.
Poor drainage and waste management systems added to the sufferings with many blaming the Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) for its failure to address the water-logging problem.
The Meteorological Office in Patenga recorded 48.3mm of rainfall in the city till noon, said Sheikh Harunur Rashid, an officer at the met office.
Manzur Morshed, a banker, who was going to visit his ailing mother at Chottagram Medical College Hospital, boarded a rickshaw near his residence in Polytechnic area.
The passenger could not but get off the rickshaw in Gate No-2 area as there was waist-deep water on the road.
Manzur had to stay beneath a flyover for several hours as he had no scope to move forward.
“We elected the present mayor as he in his election manifesto promised to address the waterlogging problem. But now absence of adequate actions frustrates us,” he said.
Like Manzur, schoolteacher Sanjida Kabir and many more remained standing in the area.
Similarly, Monirul Islam, a Chittagong University student, took more than an hour to reach the rail station from his Bahaddarhat residence where it takes only 15 minutes to get there.
Lt Col (retd) Mohiuddin Ahmed, chief engineer of CCC, said Chittagong Development Authority has taken a mega project to solve the crisis. From now on, this is not the responsibility of the city corporation, he added.
Water borne diseases have spread in Halishahar area in an epidemic form.
Some three people died of jaundice while 178 more are diagnosed with diarrhoea and jaundice in last two months in the area.
Dr Azizur Rahman Siddique, Civil Surgeon of Chattogram, told journalists “We’ve visited the area after getting information that three persons died of jaundice.
We’ve distributed one lakh water purifying tablets among the locals. Hepatitis E virus infects liver that can cause liver swelling or jaundice.”
“Most of the patients of jaundice recover easily within two months. Usually it doesn’t lead to long-term illness or liver damage like some other forms of hepatitis. But hepatitis E can be dangerous for pregnant women or anyone with weak immune systems, including the elderly or people who are ill,” Azizur said adding that scarcity of pure water and consuming unhygienic foods are prime the reasons of the disease.
Talking with journalists , Dr Selim Akhtar Chowdhury, Chief Medical Officer of CCC, said, “we are trying to collect data of the people who were admitted in the hospitals.”
However local people claimed that the leakage in WASA pipelines is spreading the virus.
When contacted, WASA Managing Director AKM Faizullah denied the allegation and claimed that water supplied by WASA is clean and pure.
