Can sinking Dhaka be saved?

Friday morning's torrential downpour -- the heaviest monsoon rainfall of the season so far -- was expected to provide the much-needed respite from the scorching heat. Momentarily it did, but the city dwellers had to suffer flooding of roads and ground floors of many homes as the downpour overwhelmed the city's inadequate drainage system. The monsoon shower lasted over three hours causing severe water-logging in city areas like Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Shewrapara, Kazipara, Mazar Road, Elephant Road, roads near Matsya Bhaban, Central Road, Dhanmondi 27, Karwan Bazar, Farmgate, Tejgaon, Arambagh and Bijoy Sarani. Hapless commuters were forced to wade through waist-deep waters, while ground floors of residential and commercial buildings with shops got inundated by filthy water. Water-logging only made city's usual traffic congestion worse with many motor vehicles going out of order in the middle of inundated roads. The ensuing chaos highlighted the city authorities' abject failure to address a problem that has plagued residents for years. The city authorities only recently claimed significant progress in addressing Dhaka's chronic water-logging problem. It took one single downpour to exposed hollowness of the claim.

In the past four years, the twin city corporations of Dhaka have reportedly spent around Tk 73 billion to resolve water-logging. Money has literally gone down the drain. The three hours of rain on Friday morning proved that the problem has worsened. Before 2021, Dhaka WASA was primarily responsible for managing Dhaka's water-logging. At that time, when roads were submerged in rainwater, the city corporations would conveniently blame Dhaka WASA. With the city corporations taking over the responsibilities of recovering the city's canals and drainage system, there was a great hope of a discernible improvement in the situation.

Urban experts, however, are of the view that merely keeping the canals clean by removing the floating garbage will not in itself solve the water-logging problem. There are several stages before rainwater flows through the drains and into the river, and these also demand attention. They pointed out that rainwater flows through catch pits and into the drains beneath the road. Many catch pits and drain openings are blocked. Besides, the water capacity of the canals has decreased because of sediment accumulation. The city corporations should prioritise digging the canals to increase their depth and also dismantling unauthorised structures built on those. City planners say that the lack of integrated planning by Dhaka's two city corporations is largely to blame. The two city corporations are providing temporary solutions and in effect wasting money rather than paying attention to Dhaka's long-term master plan for drainage management. Dhaka's water-logging problems are impossible to solve without long-term proper measures.

Notably, a city needs a minimum of 25 per cent of open "breathing" space. But the authorities are allowing almost all open spaces to be transformed into a concrete jungle, devoid of vegetation and grasslands for children to play. Moreover, low-lying water retention areas adjacent to the city have also been filled up for housing. The disastrous impact is clear for all to see. As urban areas are being expanded haphazardly by occupying every inch of available open spaces and wetland surrounding the city, the intensity of water-logging may worsen further in the future. It poses a daunting challenge to the city authorities and planners.