With Bangladesh currently witnessing severe rainfall, once again we find our urban centres grappling with the age-old issue of waterlogging, a problem which seems to get worse virtually every year. Cities such as Dhaka, despite their development, are rendered completely un-navigable with even a moderate amount of rainfall, to the point where it has all but become the de facto symbol of our poor urban management and infrastructure design.
Given just how prone to rainfall Bangladesh as a country is, this is a problem.
While floodwaters began receding last week, heavy rain from the ongoing depression since Friday evening has seemingly worsened the situation, which has led to the post-flood waterlogging into another flood, leading to most roads and homes becoming submerged – case in point, approximately 1.15 million people across 87 unions in Noakhali’s eight upazilas are currently waterlogged according the district administration.
It is no big secret that one of the key reasons behind waterlogging is the unchecked urbanization which has led to the disappearance of crucial water bodies. This has led to the loss of natural drainage and water retention areas which act as a bulwark against flooding and waterlogging, issues which not only disrupt regular life, and indeed the economy, but also pave the way to public health being compromised -- lest we forget, the dengue-carrying Aedes mosquitoes breed in stagnant waters.
While the past government had promised time and again sustainable solutions for our waterlogging problems, Dhaka’s in particular, none of the proposed plans have come into fruition. However, the Kalyanpur Retention Pond project was perhaps promising in this regard - - while we have heard little progress on this project since its announcement years ago, the interim government would do well to reassess it and ensure its implementation if found to be a feasible solution.
Thursday, June 04, 2026
