The more you spend the worse it gets

It may sound facetious, even tendentious, but it will be very close to the truth to suggest that while the rainy season and waterlogging come as a curse for the city dwellers, it appears as a boon for some in the two city corporations. Thousands of crores of Taka are spent every year in projects to improve the drainage of the city and save people living with the misery of waterlogging, but it seems it has all gone down the drain. For example, in the last four years, Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) has spent over Tk 2,000 crore for so-called development of road infrastructure and drainage, while Dhaka North City Corporation allocated about Tk 1025.86 crore in the last fiscal year for the same purpose. Unfortunately, the situation has not improved, and in fact we see it worsening every year. The claim by the erstwhile mayor of DSCC in 2019, of solving the waterlogging problem in certain areas of his responsibility, has been belied. The result of the work that cost a pretty penny of the taxpayers' money was very visible after the heavy downpour in the city on Monday.

The terse but very true comment of a resident of Shantinagar, as quoted in this paper on Tuesday, identifies the nub of the problem. He says that the budget is made for their own benefits, not for the people or for public interest. We believe the time has come for the LGRD ministry to study seriously why the money being spent is not bearing fruit. Are there follies in the plans? We understand that the projects are approved by the LGRD ministry. It has much to answer for regarding the woes of waterlogging in Dhaka.

We believe that projects are being taken up in an isolated manner, with hardly any coordination between the corporations and the 54 other public service providers. We also believe that town planners and water experts should be taken on board the planning and implementation process. All the service providers should be put under one controlling authority, in this case the two city corporations, at least to stop them working at cross purposes. Finally, continuous oversight and strict accountability should be exercised so that the money does not go down the drain and ultimately into the pockets of unscrupulous individuals.