EXTREMELY heavy rainfall induced by a depression that had continued for two to three days have both sprained and strained life in Cox鈥檚 Bazar, Chattogram, Barishal, Patuakhali and neighbouring districts. Houses, road stretches, farms and fish enclosures faced extensive damage in the rainfall that came with heavy wind. With a decline in rainfall, Cox鈥檚 Bazar recorded 38 millimetres on September 15. The rainfall had continued for almost two days without any break. But the place had a rainfall measuring 709 millimetres in the preceding 78 hours which is double the average of the monthly rainfall of 340 millimetres that usually takes place in September. Patuakhali and Dhaka had 78 millimetres of rainfall in 24 hours until September 15 morning. Barishal recorded 280 millimetres of rainfall in three days until September 15 afternoon. Places in the city of Barishal went under two to four feet high water. Reports from Magura said that the most of the town areas went under knee-high water during two days of incessant rainfall. Incessant or heavy rainfall that submerges areas, strains life and damages infrastructure and farms cannot be controlled. Only a timely forewarning can help people to minimise sufferings and damage as far as possible.
But what remains in all this to see if there have been some human intervention that stops rainwater from flushing out the areas that go under water during rainfall or, even, flooding. Whilst the drains are not said to have been properly maintained, even in the capital Dhaka, by local government authorities and they stay clogged stopping water from flowing out, unplanned erection of structure such as fish enclosures and farms and of infrastructure such as roads, bridges and culverts do often come in discussions that prevent water from flushing out. Such water stagnation was first typical of Dhaka. The condition then started to be reported from Chattogram and Rajshahi. The same situation now appears to be plaguing other cities and many of the towns and their outskirts. Flood zones and water retention points have come to be encroached on, often in collusion with officials, for which water stagnation after moderate to heavy rainfall has become a phenomenon. In Sylhet and Sunamganj where flooding occurs two to three times a year, experts have blamed unplanned construction of roads as a major obstacle to water flushing out. Water stagnation that could not be encountered in some places a decade or so ago has now become a regular phenomenon. It is, therefore, time that the authorities, who are in charges of development, saw whether unplanned human intervention such as laying out roads in an unplanned way or erecting structures in a haphazard way is stopping collected rain water from flushing out.
In such a situation, the authorities should first see if unplanned human intervention is stopping rainwater from flushing out. And, if it so does, the authorities should rework their development efforts under a comprehensive plan to ease the situation for people.