After the death of 127 people in Chittagong caused by a devastating landslide that took place in 2007, two committees were formed, which came up with 36 remedial recommendations.
However, more six years after that incident, the death toll of port city people living on risky hillsides and foothills has increased, especially during the rainy season.
The authorities concerned are yet to implement most of the recommendations the committees made.
The latest incident took place only Sunday when a landslide, triggered by heavy rain, left a woman and her daughter dead in the city’s Lalkhan Bazar area.
According to the Chittagong Development Authority (CDA), more than 50,000 people live on hillsides and foothills within city limits.
Of those hills, at least 13 have been considered as extremely risky, for a long period of time, and the authority has been strongly recommending the immediate removal of around 10,000 people that live on and around those hills.
CDA sources said most of the 7,000-8,000 people, who were evacuated from the risky areas after the 2007 tragedy, came back, as no permanent rehabilitation arrangement had been put in place as the committees had recommended.
Investigations have revealed that the hill people tend to come back to live in these areas, risking their lives, because the rent for accommodation is low. However, that does not mean these lands on the hill slopes and foothills are actually owned by anyone.
It is an open secret that local influential people illegally grab this land, build semi-permanent houses and shanties and rent them to people from low-income groups.
At the outset of this year’s rainy season, the time of the year that generally sees a landslide spike, the authorities have tried to shift some people living in the most risky areas to temporary shelters built at different areas of the city.
Very few people, however, responded to that initiative. They said they did not want to leave their hillside houses in fear of losing possession.
Some of the major recommendations made after the 2007 incident included evacuation, measures for permanent rehabilitation, a national hill management policy and banning brick kilns within 10km and housing projects within 5km of the hills.
The committees, both headed by the then divisional commissioner MN Siddique, also recommended formation of vigilance teams to check teams to check new settlements sprouting in risky areas, construction of boundary walls around risky hills, massive afforestation and tougher punishment for the hill cutters.
Preservationists have often heavily blamed unplanned and unauthorised hill-cutting as one of the main reasons behind the frequent landslides in the hills. Current Divisional Commissioner of Chittagong, Mohammed Abdullah told the Dhaka Tribune that the process for implementing all the 36 recommendations placed by the two committees was ongoing. “We have implemented some of the recommendations and undertaken short, medium and long term measures to implement the rest,” he said.
He, however, said massive evacuation, the prime recommendation, was not immediately possible because the authorities were yet to decide on a permanent location for rehabilitation.
After the 2007 incident, a hill management committee was formed which selected 27 acres of government land in Hathazari upazila in Chittagong for relocating the people from the risky areas. That plan, however, had to be changed later.
HM Humaiun Kabir, member secretary of the hill management committee, told the Dhaka Tribune that the plan had to be changed because the site they had selected fell within the area where the army personnel did their shooting practiced.
“We have later selected six acres of land owned by Bangladesh Railway at the Janali Hat area in Kalurghat of the city,” Kabir said.
They had a plan to set up a rehabilitation centre in the area that would be good to accommodate some 2,400 families.
The spate of landslides and death that continued after 2007, 11 people were killed in 2008, 17 in 2011 and 28 in 2012.
