Incessant rains throw port city out of gear
STAFF REPORTER, Ctg
Incessant rains that began on Saturday night caused severe inconvenience to commuters in Chittagong city. Low-lying areas of the city were water-logged, with a traffic gridlock adding to the woes of the commuters.
People, especially office-goers and students, were the hardest hit due to lack of transport in the morning. Many officer-goers, students and garments workers were stranded on the roads across the city. The commuters faced tremendous inconvenience travelling on the roads at Bahaddarhat, Murad, Gate No. 2, GEC Circle, WASA Circle and Lalkhan Bazar as the construction work on Akhtaruzzaman Flyover left huge potholes. Traffic snarls at Agrabad, Halishahar, Patenga and Bakalia and Chawkbazar also caused lots of suffering to the people.
The Bangladesh Meteorological Departments Patenga office in Chittagong recorded 95.2mm rainfall in 24 hours till 3pm yesterday in the port city. The countrys four maritime ports have been asked to hoist cautionary signal No. 3, said Farid Ahmed, a meteorologist at the Patenga Met office. He also said the land depression was likely to be cleared by Monday.
The water-logging was compounded by flash floods when tidal water entered many low-lying areas of the city, including Halishahar, Agrabad, Kattali, Bandartila, Goshaildanga, Saltgola Crossing, Chaktai, Khatunganj, Patenga and Bandar.
However, work at the port was normal, said Chittagong Port Authoritys director (administration) Zafar Alam.
The road link between Chittagong and Rangamati district was disrupted for six hours due to a landslide at Deppochhori area under Sapchori union of Rangamati district.
BSS adds from Khulna: Torrential rains starting early yesterday waterlogged nearly one-fourth of Khulna city, paralyzing city life and causing immense sufferings to the city dwellers for around 10 hours.
According to Met office, 137 millimeters of rainfall was recorded in the city in nine hours till 3.00pm yesterday.
Regional Director of Khulna Met Office Ameerul Azad said, No-3 cautionary signal has been hoisted at Mongla Sea Port. Many areas of the citys KDA Avenue, Khanjahan Ali Road, Lower Jessore Road, Rupsha Strand Road, Sher-e-Bagla Road, Iqbalnagar, Tutpara and many low lying areas have already gone under knee-deep water and vehicular movement in these areas have been severely hampered.
Visiting these areas at around 10am, this correspondent saw for himself that rainwater flooded kitchen markets, slums and the ground floors of most of the buildings and markets.
Many human haulers and battery-run easy bike were found stranded on waterlogged roads while office-goers were seen struggling to find transport. Residents blame the negligence of Khulna City Corporation (KCC) for the water-logging in the city that has been recurring every year.
Abdul Aleem, Pricipal of Govt Women College in Khulna expressed his frustration, saying, KCC has turned a blind eye to the citys water-logging problem.
Every year, KCC spends a huge amount of money on excavating canals, but had the work been conducted properly, the city dwellers would not have to face this problem, he said while making his way through knee-deep water in Boyra area to his College this morning.
However, vehicular movement on different city roads still to abnormal this afternoon as the water did not receded from most areas. While talking to acting Mayor of KCC Anisur Rahman Biswas said that a project was taken up by KCC to excavate the citys 22 canals in 2015-16 fiscal year, on which Tk 10 crore was spent.
KCC cannot maintain the regular cleaning and excavation of canals, he said. He pointed out that some people constructed structures and grabbed some portions of land of most of the canals in defiance of laws adding to the problem.
The issue of water-logging cannot be mitigated without coordinated efforts among Khulna Water Supply and Swearage Authority (KWASA), Khulna Development Authority, Khulna Metropolitan Police(KMP), Citizen organizations, city dwellers and KCC, he said.
