Unbearable state of water-logging

RAINS began too early in the country this year. The untimely monsoon has brought enormous sufferings to the residents of the capital. Waterlogged roads and alleys have emerged with their normal awfulness. A striking feature related to this year's April-May rains is the inclusion of newer areas in the annually waterlogged swathes. In the rain-battered city, large tracts of areas have been found gone under knee-deep and waist-deep water which would remain dry even during high monsoon in the past. People in these areas have experienced water-logging apparently for the first time. There are reasons for them to brace for worse. The Bangla monsoon has not yet started officially.

In spite Dhaka being one of the world's most water-logging-plagued cities, it can still boast of many of its neighbourhoods, which have so far been able to remain dry. Lalmatia, Jigatola and parts of greater Dhanmondi and Azimpur include this vast tract. But on the other hand, there are areas in the older Dhaka which remain under fetid, stagnant water for months together even after the spells of monsoon rain are over. The sufferings of the people living in these parts of the capital know no bounds. People of different social strata inhabit these neighbourhoods. Apart from the able-bodied male office-going adults, there are young and middle-aged women, adolescents and elderly people who have to come out of their residences daily. They are housewives, service holders, students, workers and those engaged in different types of profession. The ordeal they undergo while sloshing through the submerged roads or travelling by rickshaws, bouncing and tilting sideways, is unlike that in the other waterlogged areas. Owing to their being marooned for long, the inhabitants of these areas remain vulnerable to various water-borne ailments including skin diseases, dengue --- and chikungunia from the last year.

To their great woes, no effective remedial steps have yet been taken to free these people from this scourge of prolonged water-logging. Nobody knows how long they will have to silently endure this monsoon leftover, when the rest of Dhaka becomes fully dry. With an effective solution becoming elusive, the areas' residents find no other options before them except seeking a divine intervention.

Kalimullah Khan

Jurain, Dhaka