Slow development work is a slow burn

The fate of a project undertaken by the Chattogram Development Authority (CDA) to improve the port city's drainage system provides a classic example of what not to do when embarking on such development projects. According to a report by The Daily Star, the Tk 5,617-crore mega project, being implemented by the 34 Engineering Construction Brigade of the Bangladesh Army, has been flailing about in a logistical whirlpool of poor planning, slow work progress and purchases, bureaucratic hurdles, and lack of coordination among the different agencies involved. As a result, far from helping solve waterlogging in Chattogram, it has rather created a situation where "waterlogging has increased rather than decreased" halfway through the project.

Initiated in 2017, the deadline of the three-year project has now been extended by three more years in two phases, while the estimated cost of some of the project's components reportedly shot up by 8 to 38 times—no real surprise there. This has been, unfortunately, the fate of too many projects, too many times, in a trend where such time extensions and cost escalations have become the norm, rather than the exception. At the heart of the Chattogram waterlogging project's problems, we are told, is the CDA's initial flawed feasibility study and poor planning. Although a second feasibility study was later done to rectify some of the old problems, new problems popped up as the project progressed. Issues like slow land acquisition and fund disbursement, as well as a lack of coordination between the implementing and consulting firms, continue to impede the project work to this day. Our report also provides eye-popping examples of how badly the project money is being spent.

What we should take away from all this is that coming up with a good project proposal may earn plaudits, but it's not enough—not by a long shot. We need to ensure that the project is designed, planned, and implemented with precision and without delay, because the opposite can prove costly—not just from a financial point of view. The excruciatingly slow pace of the CDA project means that Chattogram residents will continue to suffer during monsoons, in more ways than one. Just last month, a pedestrian fell into an open sewer while wading through waist-deep water in Muradnagar, never to be found again. Two months before, a CNG-run autorickshaw fell into a ditch in Sholashahar area, killing two people. The list of problems caused by waterlogging is long, not to speak of the huge socioeconomic toll of persistent waterlogging on the residents and businesses.

This shows why the CDA must urgently come up with better plans that actually deliver results and reduce public suffering. It must secure support from all parties involved to clear all the hurdles that exist, and expedite its project work so that it is complete within the renewed deadline. The fate of the CDA project should also be a lesson for the central authorities on the importance of proper background work, planning and coordination while approving and embarking on projects like this.