Grab of most of the canals and drains and poor management of the drainage system is behind the people's sufferings caused by waterlogging for about one and a half decades.
Canal digging projects of Chittagong City Corporation over the last 13-14 years failed because of the administration's apathy since the tenure of former city mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury.
The curse of waterlogging will persist beyond the current rainy season, even up to the next year's monsoon.
Chittagong City Corporation over the last 14 years has done re-excavation and waste removal work in the canals of the city at a cost of Tk 3.14 billion but the sufferings of the people still remain.
During every monsoon the rainwater accompanied by water surge from the Karnaphuli floods almost half of the 60 square kilometres of the city several times.
The situation is aggravating with continued grab of canals by influential residents.
Chittagong Development Authority has just started reclaiming canals and drains in the city and work on removing solid waste and silt from 17 canals initially at a cost of Tk 56.16 billion.
The canals filled with sand from hills create waterlogging due to obstruction of the flow of rainwater at different bends from Chaktai Khal in the east to Mohesh Khan in the west.
The other canals brought under the initial excavation are Dome Khal, Hijra Khal, Nasir Khal, Goynachara Khal, Mirza Khal, Shitol Jharna Khal, Bamun Nayahat Khal, Gulzar Khal, Birja Khal, Ichanya Khal, Laldiarchar Khal, Tripura Khal, Nasir Khal, Kattali Khal, and Chashma Khal.
These canals under the Bangladesh Water Development Board have been grabbed by different organisations and influential persons because of the carelessness of BWDB officials in Chattogram, local administration officials and development and serving providing government agencies.
Water Development Board officials in the city said at least 25 canals in and around the city have been filled up for residential buildings, shops and establishments on both sides of the canals.
These houses, shops and business establishments are continuously throwing away domestic waste into the canals-turned-drains. On the other hand, the existing water bodies have been filled up.
As the two major rivers of Chattogram - Karnaphuli and Halda - have no high embankment facilities the water from the rivers inundates villages along the banks of the rivers during rainy season.
Concerned sources said two government agencies have undertaken three projects worth Tk 101.88 billion to address the waterlogging problem.
Of them, two projects are aimed at addressing the waterlogging problem while the other is aimed at both addressing the traffic congestion and waterlogging simultaneously.
Apart from the Tk 56.16 billion waterlogging mitigation project, the CDA has also started implementation of the Tk 19.79 billion traffic congestion and waterlogging project.
Under the project, the CDA is constructing the road-cum-embankment passage on the bank of the Karnaphuli River from Kalurghat Road-rail Bridge area to Chaktai which is expected to be completed by June 2020.
The CDA will construct 8.5 kilometres of road-embankment which will be connected with the Chattogram-Dhaka Highway on the north and Chattogram-Cox's Bazar Highway on the south.
It will facilitate smooth traffic and work as connectivity between the two highways. At the same time, the project will save the low lying areas of Kalurghat heavy industrial area, Chaktai, Khatungonj, greater Bakolia, Boxirhat, and Chandgaon, said the CDA officials.
CDA Chairman Abdus Salam said it will work two-way. While the embankment will protect pouring of saline water into the city through the Karnaphuli and save the city from the onrush of tidal surge, the road will act as the outer circular road to free the severe traffic congestion in the city from Chattogram southern region.
An executive engineer of the Water Development Board in Chattogram said their waterlogging project worth Tk 25.94 billion has already been approved in the pre-ECNEC meeting and it is now awaiting approval from the ECNEC which is expected soon.
The WDB project is mainly aimed at controlling flood as retaining wall along the entire right bank of the Karnaphuli River will be constructed along with the installation of several pump houses at the canal mouths.
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