¶¶Òõ¾«Æ·

The residents of Chattogram are unlikely to get any relief from waterlogging soon, as the projects to improve the drainage system of the city have not been completed in years. 

Many areas of the city, including Khulshi and Kazir Dewri, Agrabad, went under knee-deep water only after 98 millimetres of rain for three hours in the past week due to a poor drainage system, leaving residents suffering immensely.

‘Authorities promised repeatedly that they would save us from the curse of waterlogging just after a short rain, but they did not keep the promise. We have continued to suffer due to it,’ said Sekandar Hossain, a businessman in the Khatunganj area.

In 2017, the Chittagong Development Authority took on a project titled, ‘Chittagong Waterlogging Removal Project (CWRP), aiming to complete it by June 2020.

Residents are frustrated as the project, initially worth Tk 5,616.50 crore, has not been completed even in seven years.

The authorities later extended the tenure of the project until June 2023, but only 76 per cent of the work has been completed so far, according to officials.

The executive committee of the National Economic Council in November last year extended its tenure again until June 2026 and revised the cost to Tk 8,626.62 crore.

The project includes the renovation of 36 canals, the construction of drainage, girder bridges, culverts, and water retaining walls, and the making of reservoirs for flood water conservation.

The project initially started based on Chattogram WASA’s Drainage Master Plan because the CDA Master Plan appeared outdated when work began.

Being implemented by the Bangladesh Army’s engineering brigade, the project has been hampered from the onset by an imperfect design and a lack of a feasibility study.

Amid criticism, the CDA initiated a feasibility study approximately a year after project approval.

The CDA signed a memorandum of understanding with the Bangladesh Army on April 9, 2018, to implement the project.

The engineering brigade of the army started the project by renovating the canals.

Later, the Army hired a consulting firm, the Centre for Environment and Geographic Information Services, for a comprehensive survey on waterlogging.

As a result, the design and operation underwent major changes.

Out of the city’s 57 canals, only 36 were incorporated into the project’s initial outlay.

Subsequently, the project underwent significant revisions, including the addition of retaining walls along the banks of the canals, an increase in the volume of sludge removal from the canals, and modifications to critical components such as the installation of tidal regulators and silt traps.

‘Almost 70 per cent of the project, including the canal revisions, sludge removal, and modifications to critical components, has been done. We are now working on retaining walls after cleaning the canals,’ said army Lieutenant Colonel Ferdous Ahmed. 

Most of the city drains linked to the canals are blocked with garbage and plastic. So, when it rains heavily, water remains on the surface because of clogged drains, he added.

‘Keeping the canals clean and garbage-free is a big challenge we are dealing with,’ Ferdous said.

He also said that the recent monsoon rain helped them point out where the water remained blocked.

‘We are concentrating on these areas and nearby canals now,’ he added.

Chattogram City Corporation, the city authority responsible for managing drainage systems and garbage management, also claimed that they cleaned drainage systems, but due to the regular dumping of garbage, the job had become difficult.

‘We are cleaning the major drains so that water flow remains normal when it rains. But with water, garbage also comes to the drains, blocking the water,’ said M Shahin-ul-Islam Chowdhury, chief engineer of CCC.

CDA in 2014 undertook a project titled ‘Road Construction Kalurghat Bridge to Chaktai Canal’ at the cost of Tk 2,779.39 crore, with the fresh project deadline ending in June 2024.

During the construction of a 9-km road, regulators are to be installed at the mouths of 12 canals, walkways, pump houses, and electrical substations.

CDA chief engineer Kazi Hasan Bin Shams said that the regulators at the mouth of the canals have already been installed, keeping the upcoming monsoon season under consideration. Pumps have also arrived from abroad and should start working this month, he said. 

Shams said that the project was delayed for seven years due to land acquisition complications before gaining traction in recent years.

‘We hope that waterlogging will be reduced once the project is completed,’ he said.

Experts blame unplanned urbanisation for the perennial waterlogging problem in the city.

‘Chattogram has its natural water sources and canals, but all have been destroyed,’ said Muhammad Rashidul Hasan, assistant professor of the urban and regional planning department at the Chattogram University of Engineering and Technology.

‘Unplanned urbanisation of the growing city is one of the reasons for waterlogging,’ he said.

He added that low-lying lands were used for housing projects by CDA and private organisations, leaving rainwater nowhere to go.

Also, due to a lack of citizen awareness, projects taken in the past have yielded no results, he said.

Local civil society members blamed the absence of coordination among different government authorities, a lack of accountability, and improper planning for the situation.

The cost of the project was initially estimated lower than required, but after approval, it surprisingly jumped higher. All this happened due to a lack of planning, said Subhas Chandra Barua, a civil engineer and vice-president of the Forum for Planned Chattogram.