10 killed as heavy rains flood Dhaka
Drainage, public transport collapse;PM orders city agencies for urgent steps
Courtesy New Age 29/7/09
Staff Correspondent
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Overnight torrential rains submerged the capital leaving at least 10 people, including a child, electrocuted on Tuesday and leading to a complete collapse of the city’s drainage and transport systems.
Life and businesses came to a halt in the waterlogged city as most people were confined indoors and shops and schools were closed. Presence at public and private offices remained extremely thin.
Rickshaws and vans overtook the flooded city roads as public transport services collapsed. Motor vehicles were seen stuck and commuters waded knee-deep waters on the city’s main thoroughfares. In some parts, boats were plying alongside rickshaws.
Slum dwellers lost most of their belongings, and families took refuge on the road or in nearby under-construction buildings as rainwater started flooding their homes when they were asleep Tuesday night.
However, it was a long-awaited rain in an unusually delayed monsoon and came mostly as blessings in the dried up areas of the country, but brought immense sufferings to the people in cities including the port city of
While Comilla district town went under three feet of water, there was no rainfall in Rajshahi and Naogaon in the north, the worst sufferers of unusual drought this year, New Age correspondents reported.
The met office recorded 333mm rainfall in
Rainwater inundated the country’s administrative headquarters — Bangladesh Secretariat — and commercial hub of Motijheel, affecting both administrative and business activities and exposing vulnerability of the capital city to calamities like rainfall. Services in the hospitals and clinics were also affected as ambulance could not move.
Two airliners — one flight from Kula Lumpur and the other from Hong Kong — failed to land at Zia International Airport due to soggy conditions of the runway as a result of the torrential rains.
Business establishments and kitchen markets either remained closed throughout the day or resumed business in the afternoon. Authorities declared most of city schools, colleges and universities closed for the day.
Ground floors of houses, including underground water tanks and basements and garages, in many places were flooded with rainwater taking hours to recede. ‘There is no cooking arrangement at our home today as we have no utility connections now,’ Afsar-ul Alam, an inhabitant of
The rain played havoc in the electricity supply system, creating power outage in different parts for hours. Panicky people in some places also disconnected electronic lines while some others met with accidents.
At least 10 people were killed in ‘electrocution’ in the capital. However, the media cell at the Dhaka Metropolitan Police confirmed eight deaths so far, including three factory workers.
The dead were identified as Shafiqul Islam, 35, and Saiful Islam, 30, of Kafrul, Bristi, 6, of Bhasantek, Kabir Hossain, 30, and Hridoy, 28, of Lalbagh, Abdul Kader, 28, of Fakirerpul, Jannatul Mawa, 35, of Demra, Shahin, 28 of Mohammadpur, Abdul Qader, 25 of Arambagh, Delwar Hossain, 30, of Daniabazar in Demra.
State minister for LGRED and Cooperatives Jahangir Kabir Nanak, who rushed to the Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority office in the morning and stayed there for hours overseeing the WASA’s emergency response, regretted the city dwellers’ sufferings.
Locals alleged most of the WASA pumps did not start operating until noon Tuesday.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina directed Dhaka City Corporation, WASA and all agencies concerned to take immediate steps to salvage the capital from water-logging during the rainy season. She held an emergency meeting with Nanak, city mayor Sadek Hossain Khoka and officials concerned at the prime minister’s office.
While the blame primarily goes to the Dhaka WASA for its failed drainage systems, other city agencies resorted to blame game for the overall utility service failures leading to public sufferings.
The city corporation’s chief engineer Abdul Quadir held Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha responsible for not enforcing building code properly as ‘most of the buildings did not keep open space for absorption of rain water increasing the amount of run off water putting pressure on surface drains.’
‘Unless the canals are cleared of encroachers or re-excavated, the natural drainage system the city had in the past is not going to be revived any more,’ Ainun Nishat, an expert, was quoted by a news agency to have said.
Amid sufferings of many, some people joined fun of fishing. Some people went down the roads with fishing nets and tried to catch fish on the streets and lanes in areas like Mirpur, Ramna and Mahakhali, said witnesses.
‘It is interesting. I have never enjoyed fishing earlier,’ said Abir Ahmed, a junior class student of an English medium school.
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