Sewage now spills over into households and roads at a Rajshahi City Corporation ward in the absence of drainage, causing serious sufferings to the local people for the past seven months.
Residents of ward 20 of the city corporation said sewage from their houses earlier would fall into a pond but seven months ago it was filled up by the owner, creating an intolerable situation.
Harunur Rashid, a resident of Sultanabad of the ward, told New Age that there was no drainage in the area and waste was channelled into the pond through pipe but the pond was filled by its owner.
‘So, the sewage now spreads to the streets and sometimes enters the households, seriously polluting the local environment,’ he said.
Housewife Purnia Sraker told New Age that the waste was now entering their yard and creating a horrible situation in the Sultanabad area of the ward.
‘The septic tanks of some families are open to the roads,’ she added.
A Rajshahi College student, expressing dissatisfaction over the authorities’ indifference to the ward, said, ‘It is unbelievable that there is no sewers in a city corporation area,’ he said.
A college teacher of the area said the city corporation neither installed sewers in the area nor took any action against the persons who filled the pond violating the existing law.
The mosquito menace in this area has also increased as the sewage remained stagnant on the road, Golam Hossain, a residential of the area, said.
Councillor of the ward Mustak Hossain Ratan told New Age, ‘I am also the victim of this problem. I could not do anything to prevent the pond from being filled as the owners are influential.
He also said he went on demonstration with the locals of the area against the initiative to fill the pond, but he failed to stop the filling.
‘But I wrote an application to the city mayor to take proper steps in this regard,’ said another councillor Mustak Ahmed.
When contacted, advocate Ankur Sen, owner of the pond, declined to make any comment in this regard.
