Water experts at a workshop in the city stressed Monday the need for immediate renovation of the existing drainage system and sewerage network of the capital to address the water-logging and urban flooding problems, reports UNB.
They said the drainage and sewerage network was not expanded in Dhaka city in line with the rapid urbanisation, while the water bodies and wetlands were shrinking day by day, intensifying water-logging and flooding problems in the city.
Institute of Water Modelling (IWM) with support from the European Union FP7 Programme organised the workshop on Dhaka Case Study for the research project on 'Collaborative Research on Flood Resilience in Urban areas (CORFU)' at the Spectra Convention Centre in the city.
Chaired by IWM executive director Prof Dr Monowar Hossain, the workshop was addressed, among others, by State Minister for Water Resources M Nazrul Islam, Water Resources secretary Dr Zafar Ahmed Khan, Prof Slobodan Djordjevic of Exeter University, UK, and IWM deputy executive director Abu Saleh Alam.
In his presentation, IWM director (water resources and planning) SM Mahbubur Rahman said Dhaka was one of the most densely populated cities in the world where the average population density in the central part of the city was 48,000 per square kilometre.
With the rapid urbanisation and development of city infrastructure and the reduction of water bodies, recent flooding and water-logging from local rainfall combined with river spills have reached a dangerous magnitude, he said.
Referring to massive rainfall the Dhaka city experienced in last one decade, Mahbubur Rahman said 40 per cent of the Dhaka city's area was inundated during monsoon in 2004 worsening the sufferings of the city dwellers. "The drainage system of the city has no capacity to carry runoff," he added.
He suggested taking possible mitigation measures to cope with the urban water problems understanding the future.
Talking to the news agency on the sidelines of the workshop, IWM executive director Prof Dr Monowar Hossain said the city was expanding rapidly with unplanned urbanisation destroying its wetlands, the reservoirs of storm-water.
Identifying the reasons behind flooding in Dhaka, Monowar said the sewerage network must be redesigned to keep the city free from urban flooding and water-logging.
