During this monsoon, water logging disrupted normal life in Chittagong. Due to the weeklong torrential rains, many areas of the port city went underwater, and bus services were suspended on most of the routes, leaving residents to commute on rickshaws, auto-rickshaws, vans, and three-wheelers.
Knee-high water was seen everywhere, including markets and educational institutes. The residents were stuck in their houses. All this has caused enormous suffering for lower income groups.
Traders also closed shop, as the roads in front of their shops got waterlogged. Children missed classes, the poor suffered as they live hand-to-mouth. Along with Chittagong, the water logging problem is a common phenomenon in urban life of the country, including the districts of Dhaka, Sylhet, Satkhira, Jessore, and Khulna.
Due to unplanned urbanisation, a lack of long-term development plans, implementation of ad hoc projects, and a lack of regular maintenance, water logging problems appear as a threat for the south and southwest part of the country.
Inundation of agricultural land, reduction in production, and the impact on low-income groups causes unemployment, underemployment, poverty, and migration, which are the main economic consequences of water logging, while adverse impacts on family and households, sources of usable water, sanitation systems, utility services, and recreation facilities are the social consequences.
Every year, when monsoon sets in, many areas of Sylhet city used to go underwater, which caused immense sufferings to dwellers. But things have changed now, thanks to Sylhet City Corporation and other concerned development agencies like Oxfam who joined their hands together to solve this problem.
In April, 2010, a project worth Tk110m was initiated by the Sylhet City Corporation, and some steps like removing illegal infrastructures and some excavations were carried out. However, shortly afterwards, illegal land grabbers and influential encroachers started to hinder the activities of the project and as a result, SCC was forced to shut down the project, without paying attention to the water logging problem.
The issue of water logging became crucial during the last Sylhet City Corporation Mayoral elections, which took place on June 15, 2013. Candidates pledged to address the issue in their election campaigns and promised to retrieve 11 dead canals of the city from land grabbers.
Those canals play important roles in combating water logging. Thankfully, the elected mayor is committed and is working with other stakeholders to solve this problem with utmost priority. Some projects are now being implemented to address water logging problem.
“A major problem”
Throughout January-February, 2014, Ward Disaster Management Committee (WDMC) conducted Urban Risk Assessments in selected wards of Sylhet City Corporation under the support of DIPECHO VII Action Plan. The assessment identified water logging as the number one problem in all the areas. The major causes include: Unplanned drainage systems, encroachment, and illegal establishment over the drains. Moreover, the lack of social awareness is also adding to that.
Towards resilience
During 2013-2014, Sylhet City Corporation has prioritised the water logging issue in their development plans and have accordingly implemented some significant projects addressing water logging, waste management, and the re-excavation of water streams at a cost of approximately Tk247m where SCC sets unique example of coordination.
The major project includes water streams (“Chara”) cleaning and new drain establishment projects by Comprehensive Disaster Management Program (CDMP) Phase II, fund allocation for drain cleaning and maintenance by ADP, water supply, sanitation, and new drain construction project by GoB and Unicef.
Mass awareness and capacity-building
Along with mitigation projects, SCC took mass awareness and capacity building initiatives towards eradicating water logging from the city corporation areas. The activities included assessing problems through the Risk Assessment process, capacity-building training, mass awareness sessions at communities, mosques, classrooms, and households, setting waste-dumping boxes at different points of the wards, and organising cleaning campaigns on a regular interval.
In addition, SCC took initiatives to organise awareness workshops with hotel, restaurant, and hospital owners, with the aim of motivating them not to throw their litter in the drain, rather in the dumping places.
The Sylhet model shows that an integrated approach is needed to reverse the consequences of water logging. The planning phase needs to be designed in a participatory way with the aim of contributing in the long-term, persistent water logging problem. Most importantly, mass awareness is a prerequisite to get rid of this prolonged problem from urban Bangladesh.
