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Water logging menace looms large


Published : 02 Jun 2021 09:56 PM | Updated : 03 Jun 2021 12:50 AM

With the monsoons approaching, the question of whether the roads of Dhaka city are ready for the downpours this year, looms large. 

Every year, the capital is faced with water logged roads leading to numerous inconveniences.

Streets in many areas of the capital are flooded with dirty water making movement difficult for vehicles as well as pedestrians. The recurring problem comes back to haunt the capital every monsoon season. 

Sumaiya Rahman, a resident of Dhanmondi road no. 27 said, “I could not go home due to the water-logged road. Road constructions stalled for over a year add to the problem of piling up the water.”

Another city dweller said, “There is no way for the water to flow. All the exits seem blocked and the water keeps overflowing and gathering on the streets.”

Arifur Rahman, a house owner in the Khaje Dewan area of old Dhaka said, “The whole road was made higher so that the water does not stay and rolls off into the drains. However, the drains were not cleaned or unblocked. The rain last week caused the drains to overflow.”

He further said that because the land was elevated, the water gets off the overflowing drains and directly enters our house.

Last year, the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives (LGRD) recommended eliminating water logging by handing over charge of the drainage department of Dhaka WASA to the two Dhaka city corporations. Both mayors were very optimistic about solving a long-term problem faced in the capital.

According to authorities, human behaviour is one of the major reasons behind the long term causes of water logging. Drains and pine lines remain blocked from the wastage dumped on the streets by the city dwellers. The drains and box culverts remain blocked by the waste disposed of resulting in the overflowing of the water.  

Alongside, the canals that were handed over to the city corporation were never really cleaned resulting in the blockage in the flow of the water. 

Furthermore, the infrastructural development required in Dhaka in order to tackle this sort of problem was not executed in due time. Construction work delays in many areas have contributed to the problem. 

While tackling the problem, City Corporation authorities do face some barriers. Big projects such as the metro rail construction have blocked the water in places during heavy rainfall.

DSCC Mayor Barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh said that they have started waste removal activities from January 2 in branches of canals including Jirani, Manda, Shampur, Kalu nagar and Panthapath and Segunbagicha box culverts. 

He added that DSCC has already removed more than 1 lakh 3,500 metric tons of waste and 6 lakh 79 thousand metric tons of silt from these canals and box culverts. Work is also underway to clean the blocked sewers and open sewers received from WASA and it is targeted to be completed by this June

“We will be able to bring water logging to a tolerable level in the next two years. Our expectation is to free the people of Dhaka from the misery of water logging in the long run”, said the mayor.

DNCC Mayor Atiqul Islam said, “The land required for 3 well-planned reservoirs has been acquired to solve the problem of water logging in the city. However, most of the land earmarked for the reservoir is in the possession of illegal occupants, which is very unfortunate.”

The mayor added that DNCC has already started canal rescue and cleaning activities in different places and it will continue with the help of people. The boundaries of the two banks of each canal will be demarcated and proper maintenance will be done.

The mayor further said that the DNCC is working on short, medium and long term plans to reduce water logging and control pollution in the city. The city dwellers will get the benefits within the next 2 years.

While talking to Bangladesh Post, Dhaka South City Corporation CEO Farid Ahmed said that both the city corporations are working towards tackling this long term problem before the arrival of the rainy season this year. 

“Four channels, out of the five handed over to us, have recently been put clear in order to keep the roads unlogged during heavy rain. Additional labour has been recruited in order to clean the saucer drains every three days. These drains will keep the water flowing”, said the CEO. 

Addressing the issue of road construction and other projects, the CEO of DSCC told Bangladesh Post that there are many other bodies involved in the projects that are going on in the capital. 

Farid Ahmed added, “It has been decided in an accumulated meeting that in the four months of June, July, August and September, road constructions would not be allowed.” 

However, he said that some national projects cannot be paused but other smaller scale road projects would be put to a halt during the four months of the rainy season”

While talking to Bangladesh Post, DSCC PRO Abu Naser shared that WASA handed over two pump houses to the city corporation that were not in operation. 

“The two pump houses had six machines. We have been able to make three of those machines work, one in Kamalapur (5000 m/s) and two in Dholaikhal (7000m/s). There was a lot of waste blocking the flow of water which we have cleaned from time to time”, he said.

In the last few months, Tk 105 crore worth of infrastructural development and clean-up projects has been executed in many areas by the City Corporations. A tender has been passed to buy 30 movable pumps in order to irradiate the water from the streets.

According to DNCC records, by the 3rd week of May, 11,638 tonnes of floating waste was extracted from the canals by the excavator. 58000 tonnes of hard waste was extracted from the bottom.

The canals are currently in function; however, in order to increase the flow of water, two floating type excavators have been rented. A total of 21.843 workers are involved in the canal cleaning projects. 

Tk 33 crore has been spent in cleanup projects in five regions. This money was spent to clean up 94.71km of the 180km sewerage drains obtained from the Dhaka WASA.

DNCC aims to make all the canals allocated to them waste-free. More equipment is planned to be bought in order to keep them clean for a long term.

Architect Iqbal Habib said, “Water flow should be a natural process but due to a lot of mishaps, the situation has worsened. The City Corporations, starting from this year, did not have enough time to fully execute their plans with the arrival of monsoon.”

Water logging is a long term problem that can only be solved through a well-designed and well set out long term plan, combined with strong commitment and accountability in improving the drainage system.