Kamrun Nahar, Staff Reporter, Daily Financial Express
The proverb “too many cooks spoil the broth” probably applies best when it comes to the question regarding the visible and viable measures against the perennial waterlogging problem in Dhaka city.
With around 19 million people, Dhaka, a so called megacity, has been fighting various man-induced and natural hazards including traffic congestion, polluted air, substandard living condition and waterlogging. The capital is often dubbed as a slum of concretes.
Of all the problems, waterlogging has been a burning issue and the situation is worsening, with heavy and abnormal rainfall taking place due to climate change. Monsoon is due from June 10, which lasts till the end of October.
With the monsoon having nearly three weeks to start, the intensity of downpour is abnormal– a matter that is noticed over the past two three years. The temperature of Dhaka city over the period of a year was 28-32 degrees Celsius three or four years back, but it has shot up to 38-42 degrees Celsius currently. Experts find a relation with the abnormal behavior of weather with climate change. So there is much reason to be worried regarding the ensuing waterlogging problem as it seems the authorities concerned are not properly prepared to save the city dwellers from the ever-growing sufferings.
Architect Mobaswer Hossain say, there are 52 fathers of Dhaka city meaning 52 authorities are responsible to look after the city, creating a mess. City dwellers are yet to see the light of any solution to the nagging water-stagnation problem this year. Much debate, discussion and criticism have taken place on the issue literally bringing no result so far. No authority has come up with any visible solution in this regard. Experts say the present drainage system does not have the capacity to run off this extra rainwater creating water congestion that exists for hours in some cases.
Media reports show that Dhaka WASA and the two city corporations are now locked in a row over the jurisdiction of drainage system, making the prospect of solving the city’s waterlogging problem clouded as ever. There is an allegation that the incumbent Dhaka WASA managing director has made the drainage division inactive since 2014 by transferring the city’s drainage system to two city corporations in violation of the 1996 WASA Act. But the board of the DWASA was unaware of such a policy decision. The act has to be amended if the responsibility is transferred to another organization.
Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister Engr Khandker Mosharraf Hossain in a coordination meeting on July 15, 2016, announced that the city corporations would be the lead agencies in controlling the waterlogging problem, not the WASA. In the meeting, illegal grabbing of major canals, blocking and inadequate rainwater-flowing channels were identified as the reasons for the ever deteriorating waterlogging in the capital. But, the then DNCC mayor, Annisul Huq, instantly refused to take the responsibility calling the drainage division ‘an ICU patient’.
DWASA has 380-km sewer lines, 10.5 km box culverts and 125 km open canals under the drainage division. The sewerage system has a total length of 916 km. The government allocates Tk 55 million annually for development. There is currently no drainage project although two have been pending for approval in the planning commission since 2014.
According to city experts, both city corporations and Dhaka WASA have been showing negligence to the city problems which they say is not right. At least 17 canals have been encroached fully while 12 are on the verge of disappearance. Dhaka city has 43 canals, of which only eight belong to the deputy commissioner of Dhaka and 26 others are maintained by the WASA authorities. Most of these canals need regular dredging and cleaning which WASA did not do properly over the years. The DNCC and DSCC want the WASA to reclaim the canals first and then go for the dredging to ensure smooth water flow then they will take over the responsibility.
Apart from Dhaka WASA, six other authorities deal with the city’s drainage system on a piecemeal basis. Other than two city corporations, there are the Bangladesh Water Development Board, Rajuk, the cantonment board and private housing developers like Bashundhara have been dealing with the drainage network of Dhaka city resulting in a nightmare of public misery every time there is a norwester or low at bay or even during normal monsoon shower. The two city corporations maintain over 2,000km feeder drains (open and small diameter pipes) to drain water from homes and rainwater to channel them to canals and wide diameter (WASA) storm sewer system. The government prepared a storm drainage master plan for Dhaka in 2016, but it could not be implemented as no organisation has been tasked with the job. Urban planners say only 10% of the masterplans prepared for Dhaka could be implemented so far.
Whatever the debate is, the city needs an efficient drainage network, passable canals and free flood zones around it, to save its residents from the recurrent waterlogging. Late last month, much of the capital was inundated following a moderate shower, causing public misery. We expect the authorities and the government will be more serious to save the city from inundation and salvage people from sufferings from waterlogging this year.