Preparedness for Water-logging in Chittagong

Bangladesh is a country with six seasons. Every season comes with its individual characteristics. Rainy season is one of them. It has a huge impact on the daily livelihood of people. As residents of Chittagong, we faced a lot of problems caused by rain. We are going to highlight “Water-logging” in our project.

Water-logging has become one of the recent issues in Chittagong city. Due to inundation, canal water seeps through the ground and rises the water level, thus causes water-logging. Because of heavy rainfall, water cannot pass through the small sized drains or canals and as a result the water level increases which leads to water-logging. Blockage created by garbage in the drainage system is also a cause of water-logging.

In one news report, Nur Mohammad, duty officer at the Meteorological Office in the city’s Patenga area, stated that, “Around 150mm of rainfall was recorded in 24 hours until 3pm, 22nd June 2014.”

When Asked to the Mayor of the city, about this situation, he shared an important information. “The city’s drainage system can endure up to 80mm of rainfall. The low-lying areas and roads get flooded when the rainfall exceeds that limit,” he said. So we can conclude that, our drainage system does not have the capacity to hold the water in and so causes water-logging.

One of the areas vulnerable to this issue is Sholoshohor, 2 no. Gate. During heavy rainfall, the communication system gets highly affected. One of the victims we interviewed talked about their experience.

According to subject A, while returning from college they couldn't find any transport because of heavy rainfall and water logging in that area. So many problems arrived at once like, people got stuck, huge traffic jam was seen, and many people got sick, also houses went few levels under water.

They also shared their idea with us about preparedness required for such disasters. They said, “Roads should be constructed high, drains should be cleaned regularly, dustbins should not be kept open and these steps should be followed not only in rainy season but also throughout the year”.

We went to the Health Centre in our community to ask them about emergency services and preparedness. Before disaster, they plan an outline of how they should react to such disaster. Many people are affected by water-logging and suffer from water borne diseases afterwards.

At that time a team is there to respond. They provide medical aid as per need. They also added that workshops should be made available for us so that we get knowledge of measures needed before and after disasters.

Effects of water-logging can be minimized if necessary measures are taken. As residents of Chittagong, it is our duty to protect our city from disasters. Mass awareness should be created among people so that they can prepare themselves to face such situations. Furthermore, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) approved three development projects that include “a canal excavation project for Chittagong to address the water-logging of the port city” (Prothom Alo). That can help reduce the amount of water-logging.

We highly believe that, these kinds of measures will lessen the citizen’s suffering to great extent.

General people should help in the processes as well, that way, maybe one day; there will be no more water-logging in Chittagong.