Water-logging: Poor drainage system is the villain

The media, both print and electronic, has been awash since the beginning of September with detailed coverage, including photographs, that depicted the total helplessness of the 17 million inhabitants of capital Dhaka as they faced water-logging throughout the city. The consequences have been serious, to say the least.
There was disruption in city life in all spheres - education, healthcare, transportation, office and business. The 64 mm of rainfall on September 01 left most of the capital roads waterlogged with long tailbacks at crossroads. Knee-high or chest-high water levels on some of the busiest streets, including lanes and by-lanes, paralysed commuting. People were stranded for hours at end in different localities of the city like Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Lalmatia, Dhanmondi, Karwan Bazar, Kakrail, Shantinagar, Moghbazar, Mouchak, Malibagh, Rampura and Badda. Rickshaws were available and they blindly pedalled through the murky waters, some overturning with passengers due to hidden potholes.
Some newspapers printed cartoons of the two Dhaka City Mayors floating in half-submerged streets and trying to find an answer to the problem in a laptop. This was the only humorous feature in this dire situation.
Unless you were fortunate to live on a street or in an area not inundated, Dhaka became, for all practical purposes, a trap because of poor drainage system. Such a situation was apparently true in many other parts of the country including the second largest city, Chittagong.
As expected, there have been comments from urban architects and the two elected Mayors of North and South Dhaka City Corporations. There have also been explanations from different authorities (including WASA) responsible for keeping the water, sanitation and drainage systems running in the capital and its surrounding areas.
The common denominators that emerged from their response relate mainly to the following:
 (a) water-logging is one of the after-effects of unplanned urbanisation. Unless checked and corrected, soonest, the problem will deteriorate at a faster pace - mostly so because of geometrical growth in the capital's population due to migration of the rural youth population to the urban area in search of a better livelihood;
 (b) a lack of coordination among the authorities responsible for maintenance of the drainage system. Sayeed Khokon, Mayor, Dhaka South, has observed that "around 14 government agencies, including the two Dhaka City Corporations and Dhaka WASA, are responsible for the upkeep of the city's drainage system, but there is no coordination among these organisations". Nevertheless, the DSCC is apparently cleaning the surface drains as an immediate measure to ease water-logging. Annisul Huq, Mayor, Dhaka North, has stated that "nobody knows the exact state of storm drainage facilities in the capital. Dhaka WASA and the City Corporations pass the buck between each other". He has "instructed" the Ward Councillors within his jurisdiction "to come up with ideas on how to contain water-logging in their respective areas and in other parts of the city";
 (c) there is no storm drainage system in 78 per cent of the 360 sq. km Dhaka WASA area, not to speak of greater Dhaka which covers 1,528 sq. km;
 (d) available surface drains measuring nearly 1,500 km are mostly clogged with solid waste or with washed in debris, particularly plastic products which do not disintegrate. Lack of civic responsibility in this regard has become a major factor. It has been found that this situation has deteriorated so much that sometimes even high-tech heavy machineries prove ineffectual in clearing the congestions. Manual clearances, sometimes hazardous, then need to be undertaken as have been exemplified in the case of Panthopath;
 (e) drainage systems are mostly cleared only once a year, and that too if the area happens to be near a main thoroughfare;
 (f) waterways and canals that are supposed to flush out excess water through rainfall are being stamped out by illegal filling-up by land grabbers. It would be interesting to note here that according to available statistics, there was about 2,952 hectares of water bodies, about 13,528 hectares of low-lying land and about 2,900 hectares of canals in and around Dhaka city in 1978. By 2014, these figures came down to 1,935 hectares, 6,198 hectares and 1,002 hectares respectively. That indicates the gravity of the situation. It may be recalled that the WASA authorities have installed some large-diameter storm-water drains between 2012-2014 in some parts of Gulshan, Dhanmondi, Mirpur Darussalam and Uttara areas. But this was done in an isolated and fragmented manner. Consequently, the drainage systems do not function meaningfully. The media has reported that the relevant authorities have tried to facilitate drainage through open canals (totalling about 60 km). However, they are not functioning in the expected manner as storm-water carriers, because of waste dumping that has reduced their depth and also because of indiscriminate encroachment.  The Prime Minister in this context has very correctly sought the help of the FBCCI (Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry) and other major chambers to ensure that businessmen as well as those associated with real estate do not contravene environmental regulations and undertake illegal initiatives that might endanger drainage of excess water, particularly during the rainy season; and
(g) agencies responsible for maintaining drainage do not always have the requisite trained personnel nor do they have the machinery required for this purpose at their disposal.
In addition, water drainage experts have revealed that nearly a total of 10-km separate stretches in different canals have been turned into box culverts, but they too, most of the time remain clogged with waste. It is apparently the duty of WASA and the two City Corporations to keep them free for water movement, but there is only mutual recrimination between them in this regard.
This difficulty would be greatly overcome with the constitution of one single authority for the entire drainage aspect. It could then take necessary steps for increasing the frequency of drain cleanings and transporting the dirty silt for deposit in a designated area outside the capital, keeping in mind that such action does not endanger available surface water supply.
Drainage experts generally agree that one of the important steps that needs to be undertaken by the government is the recovery of designated flood plains and canals. If we continue to lose dedicated flood flow zones and water retention areas to land grabbers and real estate developers, the situation can only worsen. Such unplanned activity will also raise the threat level for planned urban development.
The Mayor of Dhaka City North Corporation has announced that he will take up a  Tk. 2.0-billion (200 crore) scheme from November to improve drainage in Gulshan, Banani and Baridhara areas. He also aims to undertake another important task. Quite correctly he has identified that after the passing of the monsoon season and the persistent inundation of streets due to water-logging, attention has to be given to the repair and re-surfacing of almost all the roads in his jurisdiction. This will also apply in the case of the area designated as Dhaka South City Corporation. The situation in Narinda, Wari, Sutrapur, Chowk Bazar and Banglabazar areas leave a lot to be desired. In realistic terms, this effort on the part of the two City Corporations will require coordination with several ministries who are involved in more ways than one in maintaining communication and roads within the capital. It will also require extra funding for the stakeholders. We will have only four to five months of dry, winter weather before the season starts changing again. Consequently, the window of opportunity has to be availed of with greater seriousness.
At this point one needs to reiterate that the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) must take a more functional approach. They are also associated with the drainage process and need to be more pro-active.
The relevant authorities should take the responsibility of pumping out additional rainwater inflow utilising heavy pumps. Some of that has been witnessed this time in the case of Hatir Jheel. At the moment WASA operates four permanent water pumping stations in the capital. They are located in Kallyanpur, Rampura, Kamlapur and Dholaikhal areas. The BWDB also has one pumping station at Goranchar Bari. There is a public demand for installing more pumping stations and increasing pumping capacity. The Ministries for LGRD and for Water Resources need to do this on a priority basis. If necessary, we should seek external multilateral financial assistance.
 The writer, a former Ambassador, is an analyst specialised in
foreign affairs, right to information and good governance.
muhammadzamir0@gmail.com