Parts of the city still submerged in rainwater

Much of the low-lying areas in and around the city and many of its roads were still inundated on Wednesday as rainwater was taking time to recede due to lack of adequate drainage system.
Meanwhile water, gas and electricity connections which were snapped at many parts of the city during Tuesday’s record downpour were yet to be restored, lingering public sufferings.
Titas Gas managing director Aziz Khan told New Age that they were receiving complaints till Wednesday from different parts of the city including Uttara and Gulshan.
‘There are many age-old pipelines and water entered into those pipelines hampering supply of the gas in many areas,’ Khan said, adding, ‘Our emergency units are working to restore the connections,’
‘Electricity supply was disrupted on Tuesday morning following the incident of two electrocutions and the supply is yet to be restored,’ said Mozaffar Hossain, a resident of Kafrul area.
Hundreds of houses, mostly shanties, were still submerged in Rupnagar Residential Area, Duaripara and its surrounding areas at Mirpur while road stretches at Kadamtala and Kazipar in Mirpur were still under water.
Pointing his finger to his submerged roadside shop at Kadamtala, Abdul Jalil said, ‘My business has remained closed for two days … but no officials have visited the area to solve the problem of water logging.’
Nasima Aktar, an inhabitant of a makeshift house in Rupnagar, said, ‘We are yet to resume normal life as my house is still in ankle-deep water. We are struggling to drain out the water from the house.’
‘Water of Rupnagar canal is supposed to reach the cross dam of Mirpur through Duaripara, but it’s not working out,’ Babul Ahmed, a local resident, told New Age.
Experts said inadequate drainage system in the city, filled up canals and construction of the dam surrounding the city are the major causes for water logging in the capital.
According to sources, the corporation has 999.468 kilometres of open drains and 1052.19 kilometres of pipe drains while WASA has 240 kilometres of storm sewerage lines. But none of the agencies took any special drive to keep them clear before the start of the rainy season. The storm sewerage lines and surface drains of both WASA and the Dhaka City Corporation are not functioning properly due to lack of cleaning.
Besides, the Dhaka WASA and Water Development Board have four pumping stations with around 150 pump machines with a capacity of siphoning around 100 cusec water, which is sufficient only if there is around 100 mm rainfall in a single day.
The Dhaka WASA with its existing drainage capacity can collect only 35 to 40 percent of water and reach them up to the four pumping stations, said Dhaka WASA deputy managing director Liakath Ali.

Courtesy of NewAgebd