Rainwater, gridlocks paralyse city life

Severe traffic congestion, made even worse by stagnant water on potholed roads from days of rainfall, and wretched condition of the footpaths turned out to be a horrible experience for the Dhaka residents on Wednesday. 
Poor drainage sent a large city area, including the secretariat, under knee-deep to waist-high water during the heavy rainfall between Wednesday’s morning and afternoon.
Amid such a situation, the authorities, however, found time to trade blame over the deterioration in traffic management and other civic amenities. 
Traffic, following the water stagnation, came almost to a halt on almost all roads, lanes and by-lanes. 
Presence of students at schools was thinner while some schools announced closure for today due to downpour. Many could not reach offices on time on the day.

Clockwise from top left corner: a rickshaw with passengers tumbles down as its wheel got stuck into a pothole on DIT Road; a bus moves along Toyenbee Circular Road flooded by waist-high water; a bus lies stranded after it stalled on a road at Arambagh creating tailback as the road was marooned by water; passengers get on a bus wading through knee-high water near South Point School at Malibagh; people wade through knee-high water that flooded Mirpur Road near Dhanmondi Boys’ School at Sobhanbagh; a driver tries to push ahead his car that went out of order on a Malibagh Chowdhuripara road that was inundated by water in Dhaka after a heavy rainfall on Wednesday. — Sanaul Haque and Indrajit Ghosh

The met office recorded 56 millimetres of rainfall in Dhaka alone between 6:00am and 12:00pm on Wednesday. 
Earlier, it recorded 30 millimetres of rainfall in Dhaka between 6:00am on Tuesday and 6:00am on Wednesday.
The officials said the rainfall, caused by active monsoon over Bangladesh, might reduce by today. 
Rainwater entered the premises of the secretariat and flooded roads at Motijheel, Rokeya Sarani, Bijay Sarani, Dhanmondi, Lalmatia, Mohammadpur, Mouchak, Malibagh, Shantinagar, Kakrail, Khilgaon, Goran, Gulshan, Banani, Tejgaon, Rampura, Banassree, Badda, Kazipara, Mirpur, Agargaon, Shyamoli, Azimpur, Palashi, New Market, Kalabagan, Farmgate, Karwan Bazar, Banglamotors, Kathalbagan, Moghbazar, Arambagh, Fakirapul and roads in old town since Wednesday morning.
The commuters suffered throughout the day being stuck in traffic congestion in these areas while stagnant water compounded their sufferings. 
Chayan Dey, a Dhanmondi resident, said it took his car about two hours to cross about one kilometre stretch from Dhamnodi 27 to Rapa Crossing on Mirpur Road due to congestion. 
Dhaka Metropolitan Police additional commissioner (traffic) Mosleh Uddin Ahmed said there was traffic congestion almost on all city roads due to water stagnation. 
He said they had to struggle to manage traffic, especially at Bijoy Sarani-Sonargaon crossing via Farmgate road, Manik Mia Avenue and Matsya Bhaban areas, due to huge congestion. 
Many students skipped classes on Wednesday while some schools like South Point School and College at Khilgaon announced closure on the day which caused sufferings to students who did not know about the notice and reached the school. 
Schools like Sunnydale School and Happy Times International School authorities announced closure for today due to downpour. 
Different development works only added to the sufferings of people.
The drivers of CNG-run auto-rickshaws and rickshaws charged much beyond the usual rates taking opportunity of people’s miseries.
Dhaka south city mayor Sayeed Khokon on Wednesday visited different areas including Mirpur Road about 12:30pm wading through knee-deep water. 
He claimed that addressing water stagnation was mainly Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority’s responsibility but DWASA’s manpower were not in the field to do the job. 
The existing drainage system was unable to drain out 100 to 150 millimetres of rainfall in a day for lack of proper planning, he added. 
DWASA managing director Taqsem A Khan, however, declined to agree that only drainage system was to be blamed for water stagnation. 
‘We are not responsible alone for the problems,’ he said. 
He claimed that under WASA there were about 360 kilometres of drainage network while the two city corporations had a total of about 3,000 kilometres of drainage system. 
He raised question about functions of the city corporations’ recent project, costing Tk 500 crore, to drain out rain waters through pipelines. 
Local government, rural development and cooperatives minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain on Wednesday at Deputy Commissioners’ Conference promised that citizens would not experience the water stagnation from next year as they were taking steps. 
He termed the present situation abnormal, which, he claimed, showed them where actually the problem lied. 
He said according to their survey 18 out of total 46 canals in the capital needed to be developed. 
He said they directed WASA to drain out rain waters within three hours even in cases of heavy rainfall. 

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net