Water stagnation continued to hamper life and businesses in parts of the capital even on Saturday, a day after a heavy rain deluged the city.
Shop owners at different markets in the capital鈥檚 New Market area, Shantinagar, Motijheel, Gulistan and Old Dhaka said that they had never experienced water stagnation of this level earlier that drowned over 10,000 shops on the ground floors in these markets.
Dhaka city was submerged in knee-to-waist-deep water following 130 millimetres of rainfall within six hours that began at 6:00am on Friday, causing terrible public suffering amid the authority鈥檚 failure to install a proper rainwater drainage system.
Residents of Bakshibazar, Azimpur, Jhilpar, Mirpur-1, Jurain and Khilgaon, among others, reported on Saturday evening that rainwater was still stagnant in their areas, disrupting normal life.
Dhaka South City Corporation chief executive officer Md Mizanur Rahman at an emergency press conference held at Nagar Bhaban on Saturday admitted that they could not remove the rainwater from some areas despite they tried hard.
He said that they had identified 161 areas with problem of water stagnation when the south city authority took the charge of the drainage system in its jurisdiction from the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority in December 2020.
鈥榃e have solved the stagnation problem in 109 of the 161 areas, and 52 spots still need await measures,鈥� he said while asked.
The problem of water stagnation has been pestering Dhaka residents for decades now and intensified over the years with the city鈥檚 haphazard and rapid expansion and development without a planned drainage system.
To fix the water stagnation problem the charge of the capital鈥檚 drainage system was handed over to the two city corporations, which, however, proved largely futile even after
spending Tk 750 crore for the purpose.
South city authority officials said that a Tk 900 crore project was taken to restore four canals鈥擪alunagar, Shampur, Manda and Jirani鈥攃rucial for draining the city鈥檚 rainwater. Once the project was implemented city people would get a relief from the problem.
They said that the Bangladesh Water Development Board had yet to handover to the south city authorities 15 canals important for implementation of a long-term drainage master plan.
The shop owners鈥� association of the markets in the New Market area estimated that more than 5,000 shops in different markets, including Gausia, Dhanmondi Hawkers, New Market and Nilkhet, were hard hit as rainwater damaged their goods.
Bangladesh Dokan Malik Samity president Md Helal Uddin said that they could not calculate the total damage yet.
Traders faced a massive loss for the failure of the city corporation. Traders paid a great amount in tax to the corporation and so the city authority should stand by the traders with compensations and also ask for apologies, he said.
Dhaka North City Corporation chief executive officer Mir Khairul Alam, however, blamed city residents for disposing of their waste indiscriminately.
He said that many drainage lines were blocked by plastic polythene bags and other waste materials, while the ongoing development projects, including the Dhaka Metro Rail, were also contributing to the water stagnation problem.
Urban planners, meanwhile, blamed a lack of pragmatic actions for the situation.
Urban Planning professor Akter Mahmud at Jahangirnagar University said that the Friday rainfall was quite normal in amount for this time of the season for the country. The city authorities could not deny their responsibility about the situation, he said.
He emphasised implementation of a meticulously designed long-term drainage master plan as the country braces for an increase in rainfall in the coming years in the wake of climate change.
Ashraful Alam, a resident of Amlirtek in Mirpur, said that during the rainy season the Dhaka WASA continued road digging that intensified their sufferings.
