With the heavy rainfall experienced in Dhaka yesterday, citizens are once again faced with a problem that the city just cannot seem to shake off: Waterlogging. And with more rain predicted across the nation in the coming days, once again we are compelled to ask exactly why our cities are always caught off-guard by rainfall of any degree.
Water-logging is not a new phenomenon for us, in fact it is an issue that the administration has promised time and again it would be addressing by constantly launching new projects without properly investigating why the older projects failed. Indeed, waterlogging in Dhaka is an administrative failure exacerbated by the division of the city’s municipal services into two separate city corporations.
However, it is primarily the result of faulty urban planning and design -- an effective sewer system and dedicated waterways are all but necessary for mega-cities such as Dhaka to properly withstand the effects of torrential rainfall as they act as outlets through which rainwater can drain into the rivers and make their way into the ocean.
Measures such as building new drainage pipes, while a seemingly good idea, have paid little dividend in helping our water-logging issues despite the crores being spent on them. Waterlogging as an issue is big enough that it requires a comprehensive plan that takes into consideration the very foundations of our city.
The Kallyanpur Retention Pond project, which was proposed a few years ago, showed the most promise to that end.
The government and our city corporations cannot skirt the issue of waterlogging any longer as it has become a persistent menace to city dwellers, as even the slightest bit of rainfall is often enough to completely bring Dhaka to a standstill.
