Vehicles plying a waterlogged road at Sholashahar in Chattogram city after rain on Saturday — Focus Bangla CHATTOGRAM, June 15: The first day of this rainy season dawned in Chattogram on Saturday bringing in heavy rain causing severe waterlogging in low-lying areas.
The Met office recorded 19 mm rainfall from 6:00 am to 2:00 pm in the port city on the first day of the Bangla month of Asharh.
The drains and canals of the city and all rivers in the district were full to the brim with the rainwater inundating thus low-lying areas. Sufferings of the people stranded in the waterlogged areas knew no bounds.
The affected low-lying areas of the port city include Bakalia, Chandgaon, Bahadderhat, Chawk Bazar, Badurtala, Nasirabad, Halishahar, Patenga, Kattali and Chaktai.
The areas went under knee-deep water following the hours of torrential rain. As a result, the inhabitants in those areas remained stranded.
Leaders of the Chaktai Khatunganj Merchant Welfare Association demanded removal of illegal establishments from the bank of the Chaktai canal. They also demanded digging of the canal and stopping disposal of waste in the canal.
President of the association Solaiman Badsha said, "The prime business hubs of the country-Chaktai, Khatunganj, Asadganj, Korbaniganj-have long been facing waterlogging during the monsoon rain and the rainy season."
General Secretary of the association Ehsan Ullah Jayedi said, "Land grabbers are occupying the maximum areas of the Chaktai canal and banks of the canal. But, the authorities are yet to conduct any eviction drive against the illegal occupants. The Chittagong City Corporation is not dredging the canal to restore its water flow."
The leaders of the association demanded dredging of the canal and stopping disposal of waste into it.
Locals and city dwellers said the city turns into a place of perpetual waterlogging in the rainy season following a heavy shower, even after any moderate rainfall, due to a faulty drainage system. Almost all the low-lying areas of the city go under water, if the city experiences torrential rain.
Shariar Khaled, a city dweller, said, "Rainwater regularly is inundating the city streets after overflowing the drains, because most of the drains are clogged heavily causing disruption in normal discharge of rainwater every year."
Locals said waterlogging makes the life of the city dwellers miserable as the roads and low-laying areas are inundated during the rainy season every year. As a result, it has become one of the serious problems in Chattogram.
The five-kilometre-long Chaktai canal has been clogged with mud and sand rolling down from the upstream area of the canal. As a result, the rainwater usually overflows from the canal flooding both sides and thus causing immense sufferings to more than 500 thousand (five lakh) residents from Bahadderhat to Chaktai area.
Besides, three other canals-Nasir Khal, Bohadder Hat Khal and Hijra Khal-were fully clogged due to the mud and disposal of waste materials.
However, there is no proper drainage system in the port city till now. Besides, most of the prevailing drains in the city have already turned inoperative due to unplanned construction and disposal of waste materials by the city dwellers. As a result, rainwater cannot flow into the river easily.
The Engineering Corps of Bangladesh Army is implementing a project of the Chattogram Development Authority (CDA) involving Tk 60 billion (6,000 crore) to solve the waterlogging problem permanently.
They cleared 12,588,000cft garbage from the canals in Chattogram during the last rainy season to make navigation easy. In the current year, they have already cleared 42,000,000cft garbage.
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