Port city struggles with waterlogging, poor drainage

People wade knee-deep through stagnant water at the Chittagong Medical College area after the downpour inundated half of the city on Saturday. PHOTO: STAR

The torrential rain inundated most of the city areas, leaving thousands of residents marooned till late afternoon since the early morning on the day.

The rainwater flooded hundreds of shops and business establishments, causing huge damage to properties.

The businessmen, particularly those of the traditional business centres of Chaktai and Khatunganj, suffered the most financial losses as the Chaktai Canal the backbone of drainage system of the city -- overflowed, submerging their godwons of wholesale grocery items.

They attributed the non-completion of renovation works of Chaktai Canal and poor maintenance of the existing drains of the city for their losses.

The city dwellers said the illegal construction of structures on the drains at Prabartak Intersection and Jamalkhan areas and concrete structures on open spaces blocking the passage of water, contributed to the waterlogging.

They urged for coordinated efforts by the authorities concerned like Chittagong City Corporation (CCC), Chittagong Development Authority, Bangladesh Railway, Chittagong Port Authority and Chittagong Wasa to keep the passage of water free and improve the drainage system.

The CCC, responsible for taking care of the drainage system, was apparently not much concerned in this regard while listing the development works in its annual budget.

CCC in its budget of the current fiscal year (2005-2006) took up no new project for developing the drainage system and opted to continue implementing the projects of last fiscal year (2004-2005).

The CCC under the last fiscal year's projects continued construction of 5.29 km drains involving Tk 1.39 crore, 4.97 km retaining walls of Tk 4 crore 39.61 lakh, and digging and removal of earth along 16.65 km at a cost of Tk 93 lakh, sources at CCC said.

The CCC is constructing a 2.16 km retaining wall along the Chaktai canal under a Tk 6.50 crore project and implementing the Tk 2.10 crore project for brick soling of the canal bed, sources said.

Both the projects for Chaktai Canal were taken up last year.

Of them, the soling of the canal bed is yet to see much progress while the construction of the retaining walls is almost completed, the CCC officials said.

Meanwhile, the CCC officials said to free the city from waterlogging, CCC alone can not do much unless all the city dwellers are aware of the problem.

They said in many points of the city garbage and rubbish are thrown and dumped in the drains blocking the passage of water. Besides, loosened earth following illegal hill cutting contributes to the silt in the drains, resulting in collapse of drainage system even after a little downpour, they said.