A State Minister has said that there will be no waterlogging in the capital city from the next year.
State Minister for Rural Development and Co-operatives Mashiur Rahman Ranga came up with the assurance in Parliament on Sunday.
"At present, work is going on to resolve the city's waterlogging problem. So, there'll be no knee-deep water in Dhaka from the next year," he said replying to a supplementary question from Jatiya Party lawmaker Kazi Firoz Rashid.
A UNB report said Ranga was replying to different questions from MPs in the House on behalf of LGRD and Co-operatives Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain.
Firoz Rashid expressed his dismay over the waterlogging, traffic congestion and lack of safe water in the city.
He said Dhaka goes under knee-deep water during rains and public movement is hampered for the waterlogging.
The opposition MP wanted to know what steps the government will take to solve the problems instead of giving assurance.
About the safe water, the state minister said access to safe water is people's basic right and efforts are on to ensure safe water of them. "The government has already negotiated with several donor countries in this regard. We'll need one more year to ensure safe water," he added.
In reply to another question from ruling Awami League MP Momotaz Begom (Manikganj-2), Mashiur Rahman said some 13.92 crore people (87 per cent of total population) are under the coverage of safe water in the country.
The junior minister said some 99 per cent of the country's population is now under the coverage of basic sanitary facilities. Of them, 61 per cent uses modern latrines, while 28 per cent shared latrines and 10 per cent non-modern latrines.
