The low lying areas of Chittagong city submerged in waist-deep water following a heavy downpour yesterday, causing immense sufferings to city dwellers.
The showers began at around Thursday night and later turned into heavy rainfall and continued till the half of Friday, where Chittagong Divisional Met Office sources recorded 326.2 millimetres of rainfall in the last 24 hours till 9:00am yesterday.
Bishwajit Chowdhury, a meteorological forecast official for Chittagong city’s Patenga area, said rainfall may continue for the next few days due to low pressure in the Bay of Bengal and because of monsoon.
Most low-lying areas of the port city, particularly Bakalia, Chawkbazar, Agrabad, Halishahar, Kapasgola, Chandgaon, Shulakbahar, Enayet Bazar, Boropol, Muradpur, Sholoshahar, Bahaddarhat and Probartak intersection, have been water-logged following the rainfall.
Motor vehicles were hardly seen in those areas while rickshaws were seen plying on the city roads. Commuters, greatly outnumbering the rickshaws, had to face immense trouble to travel through water-logged areas to reach their destinations.
Being a holiday, offices and different educational institutions remained closed.
AKM Saiful Islam, a resident at the city’s Halishahar area, told the Dhaka Tribune that water flooded the ground floor of his four-storey building.
He also blamed the poor sewerage and drainage system of the city for the water logging.
Abdur Rahim, public relation officer of Chittagong City Corporation (CCC), said some areas went under water but the city corporation was working to solve the problem.
When asked over phone, CCC Mayor M Manjur Alam avoided the matter and hung up saying he would brief over the issue at his office today.
Meanwhile, loading and unloading of merchant vessels in the outer anchorage of the Chittagong Port remained halted till filing this report due to the unexpected weather conditions, said Mohibul Hoque, director (administration) of Chittagong Port Authority.
He also said other activities at the port jetties and yards had seized in the morning due to the downpour, but the situation returned to normalcy at around noon.
A special weather bulletin of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department yesterday said under the monsoon’s influence, the low-lying areas of the coastal districts of Cox’s Bazar, Chittagong, Noakhali, Laxmipur, Feni, Chandpur, Borguna, Bhola, Patuakhali, Barisal, Pirozpur, Jhalakathi, Bagherhat, Khulna, Satkhira and their offshore islands and chars are likely to be inundated by 1-2 feet height above normal astronomical tides.
Maritime ports of Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Mongla and Payra had been advised to keep hoisted local cautionary signal number three. All fishing boats and trawlers over North Bay were advised to remain close to the coast and proceed with caution till further notice.
Fearing a possibility of a landside in the port city, the district administration yesterday urged hill-side dwellers to take shelter in nearby school buildings and cyclone centres.
Mezbah Uddin, deputy commissioner (DC) of Chittagong district, told the Dhaka Tribune that they had been informing hill-side people to evacuate the hills as there are risks of landslides.
“In the afternoon, a team from the district administration, led by Additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) Abdul Quader, evacuated 200 families from the city’s Motijharna area, a risky hill slope, and sent them to nearby school buildings,” said Dipak Jyoti Khisha, assistant commissioner of Panchlaish circle in Chittagong Metropolitan Police.