Water-logging spells woes for port city dwellers

CHITTAGONG, Aug 16: Incessant rain coupled with tidewater caused water-logging in Chittagong city Saturday, causing untold sufferings to the residents.
Rickety roads got muddy and water got stagnant in most parts of the port city, including the wholesale consumer markets at Khatunganj and Chaktai, as the drainage system is not up to the requirement.
The people in the city and its adjoining areas have been suffering from water logging for decades, but there is apparently no respite from the problem before the end of 2016.
The rainwater reaches 145 million cubic feet in the event of even 1.5 inches of rain in one hour and a half in the city. But the 60-square-mile port city has 17 canals measuring 144 kilometres and they serve as the drainage system. These canals can accommodate only 100 million cubic feet of water.
The statistics shows that the drainage system in the port city is not enough and in the event of heavy and incessant rains the low-lying areas become inundated, town planners have said.
However, cargo handling at the grains and general cargo berths and carrying cargoes from mother vessels at the outer anchorage of Chittagong Port remained totally suspended due to the inclement weather.
Unloading cargoes, including rice, cement and consumer goods, was severely hampered at the port.
Intermittent rains in the cloudy weather under the influence of late monsoon paralysed normal life and halted port activities and trading at the wholesale market at Khatungonj as most of the roads in the low-lying area went under knee-deep water. The Met office at Patenga in its warning message advised deep-sea ports in Chittagong, Cox's Bazar, Mongla and Payra to hoist the cautionary signal number-3.
The Met office also alerted the people to possible landslides in the hills and hillocks.
Engineers at the CCC expressed hope that the water logging would ease to some extent on digging of canals under a project recently approved by the ECNEC (Executive Committee of the National Economic Council) for implementation by the end of 2016. The project involves Tk 2.90 billion.
CCC Mayor M Manjur Alam and former mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury have said the water logging turned severe due to the earth left during the capital dredging of the river Karnaphuli. The local agent of the Malaysian Maritime Dredging Corporation left the capital dredging incomplete.
The Chittagong Port Authority had undertaken the project at a cost of Tk 2.2954 billion, under which around two kilometres of riverbed were supposed to be dredged.
Experts have said water logging in the city is caused by the mud flowing down the hills after rainfall, leveling of hills, intrusion of tidewater, grab of canals, drains and water bodies and construction of buildings there, and gradual disappearance of water bodies due to unplanned industrialisation.
There were as many as 65 canals and tributaries in the city, but most of them had been filled and grabbed.
The canals which have been partially filled or have dried up are Chaktai Khal, Mohesh Khal, Hijra Khal, Chashma Khal, Mirza Khal, Rajakhali, Tripura Chara, Shitol Jharna, Noa Khal, Jelepara Khal, Gulzar Khal, Nasir Khal, Biroja Khal, Sadarghat, Nazir Khal, Kazir Khal, Goynar Chara Khal, Bamonshahi Khal, Kattali Khal, Dome Khal and Diversion Khal.