Brief shower floods Dhaka

Tuesday's rains wreaked havoc in the city causing prolonged waterlogging and traffic jam in many areas leading to immense sufferings by the people.

Following just two hours of rainfall, Dhaka city witnessed hundreds of people stranded on the waterlogged roads in many areas in the capital.

Their search for transports seemed unending and those who were lucky enough to catch hold of the city buses and other means of transports had to remain seated in vehicles for hours in heavy traffic.

Some 45.2 millimeters of rainfall were recorded that started at 12:00pm, said RuhulKuddus, a meteorologist at Bangladesh meteorological department.

Many parents were found carrying their children in their laps while waiting for rickshaws or public transports on the waterlogged roads in the school districts in the capital such as Arambagh, Bailey Road, Malibagh, Lalmatia, Dhanmondi and Mirpur.

‘I had to stand on the waterlogged Bailey Road for two hours just to get a rickshaw while I carried my child. When will such suffering end?’ Nusrat Jahan, mother of a Class V student of Viqarunnisa Noon School, asked.

The roads inside the secretariat also remained under two feet water for six hours and the officials and service seekers of both local and foreign origin were found walking barefoot with their pants folded up to their knees.

‘It is beyond imagination,’ said a Chinese citizen, who went to the power division while plodding through the waterlogged road at the secretariat.

A cultural affairs ministry official said that he wished such situation repeated when the prime minister would come at the secretariat to preside cabinet meeting. ‘Nothing happens in the country without her instruction,’ he said.

Many office goers said that they had to wait for hours while returning home from the business districts at Matijheel, Dilkusha, Segun Bagicha, Paltan, Dhanmondi and others.

‘I was really scared when the wheels of the rickshaw disappeared under the water near Fakirerpool area and it was jerking heavily plying through road full of potholes,’ Md Zakir Hossain, who owns printing business, said.  

Humayun Pathan, a lawyer, said that it took four hours to return to his home at Jatrabari from Dhaka Judge Court in Sadarghat, what was just an hour's trip in a normal day.

People living in the DND area said the ground floors of all the buildings went underwater as Dhaka-Chattogram highway also went under water.

Similar picture was found in the eastern fringe of Manda, Mugda, Basabo and Khilgaon.

The newly developed areas in Mirpur and many portions of the Old Dhaka remained under water for over six hours for faulty drainage system, the locals said.

Even people living in the posh areas in the capital such as Dhanmondi, Uttara, Baridhara, Bashundhara, Niketan said that they suffered for prolonged waterlogging and traffic congestion.

They blamed the failure of successive governments for not being able to solve the waterlogging problem despite initiating several drainage development projects. 

Local government and rural development minister MD Tajul Islam said that he instantly called Dhaka Wasa managing director Taqsem A Khan and Dhaka South City Corporation’s chief engineer M Rezaul Karim to discuss the matter at his office on Tuesday.

‘They said to me that waterlogging happened due to unusual amount of downpour. Still, I instructed them to work on the drainage system and to employ pumping stations immediately,’ the minister said.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net