Downpour pushes Ctg city under water again

Chittagong city residents had to wade through waterlogged streets yesterday as most of the roads were submerged by rainwater exposing the city's poor drainage system.

Only an hour-and-a-half of downpour submerged busy intersections like Probartak, Golpahar, Sholoshahar No-2 Gate intersection, and Chawkbazar and many other streets in knee-deep to waist-deep water.

Moniruzzaman Hossain, a fruit vendor at Probartak intersection, said the scenario is the same every rainy season for the last decade.

Ahead of the Chittagong City Corporation on April 28, voters believe the waterlogging problem of the city could be a major electoral issue.

Outgoing Mayor M Manjur Alam Manju had made solving the waterlogging problem of the city one of his electoral pledges, which voters believe had turned the tide in his favour and led to the defeat of the then ruling party-backed candidate ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury with a huge margin of over 95,000 votes.     

Residents believe Manju, who is contending in the upcoming polls, will have a tougher time this election as there has been no visible improvement of the waterlogging problem. 

Ambagan Met Office recorded 74 millimetres of rain in two hours.

Roksana Akhter, who was commuting with her daughter to school in Nasirabad area, said they had to wade through filthy water as the whole street in her area was submerged and they could not procure transport. 

She said politicians can only talk and they take no action.

"Mayoral candidates will surely again promise to solve the crisis but they will forget their words once they have won the election," she said.

"One mayor comes after another promising the same thing, I have been suffering due to waterlogged streets for the last 15 years," said fruit vendor Moniruzzaman.  

According to CCC sources, Manju last year took an initiative to dig a three kilometre canal stretching from Boraipara of Bahaddarhat to the river Karnaphuli, with an estimated cost of Tk 289 crore, but the project is yet to be implemented.

However, CCC officials said the problem cannot be solved merely through digging canals and drains and blamed unplanned urbanisation and non-implementation of Chittagong City Drainage Master Plan as the root source of the waterlogging problem in the city.    

Architect Zarina Hossain, general secretary of Forum for Planned Chittagong (FPC), said CCC alone cannot solve the problem.