Waterlogging, diseases dog DND residents

Dhaka, July 30 (bdnews24.com) – Shahar Banu was cooking rice for lunch on a makeshift bed floating on filthy water in a tiny house in Sanarpar in Siddhirganj. Something her daughter–in–law Fatema Begum said they had been doing for a week after floodwaters went waist-high inside their home.

Their neighbours Kalu Mia, Shahinur Akter, Abdur Rashid and Abdur Razzak, also stricken by the deluge, were left to do similar manoeuvrings as well to throw together a meal.

Areas along the Dhaka-Narayanganj-Demra (DND) Dam including Matuail, Shahidnagar, Boxnagar, Tengra, Hajinagar, Dogair, Konapara, Jalkuri, Kadamtali, Wascolony, Shantidhara, Sanarpar, Batenpara, Painadi, Kandapara, Sahebpara, Nimaikashari, Baghmara, Hajiganj, Bamail, Rayerbagh, Sadair, Enayetnagar, Godnail, Taltala, Madhugar, Nayapara, Mizmizi, Mouchak and Nayamati have gone under knee to waist-deep water.

People living in the areas struggle with dirty water in the rainy season very year. To them, rain means floating on foul-smelling filthy water.

Officials at the BND pump house, speaking to bdnews24.com, blamed the residents for their own sufferings by illegally occupying canals.

Nuri Abul Quashem, executive engineer of the pump house, said 12 pumps were in operation 24 hours a day in rotation. Filth in the water slowed down the machines, he added.

He denied allegations of the people that the pumps mostly remain switched off. "They don't understand that we are here just to operate the pumps," he said.

Masud Ahmed, executive engineer of the Water Development Board (civil), faulted unplanned construction of houses and factories for the water-logging.

He said that there was no problem with the dam, which along with the pump house were made for irrigation of 14,500 acres of cropland.

At the time of construction, canals were deep and there was almost no water-logging. Now about 20 lakh people live in the area and the drainage system was not adequate to drain out water, Masud said.

He said newspapers kept running stories on the DND Dam, which said did not reflect the real situation of the dam. He said the reports always claimed the dam was vulnerable to breaches, but in reality it was different.

"The dam might have leakages, but they pose no threat to it," he said.

Locals however had a different story.

Abdur Razzak said the problem was with toilets. They made toilets with bamboo behind the houses, but the filth sometimes floated with the floodwater into the houses.

Abdur Rashid, who has long been living in Sanarpar, said he had not seen such waterlogging before 1998. He said the canal at Pagla had been reduced to a fourth of its size.

Rashid said authorities did not take any effective step to widen the canal. "Sometimes they removed some houses along the canal but did not do anything to dredge and widen it."

Shahinur Akter said: "The pump operators do not operate the pump regularly. The water would recede had they run the pumps regularly."

Kazi Habibur Rahman however differed with his neighbours.

"What is wrong with the pump operators? People almost occupied the canal. Factory wastes are dumped into the canal. People are fishing in the canal blocking its two sides. So where does the rainwater go?

He suggested removal of the illegal establishments along the canal to resolve the problem. The roiling waters damaged more than 100 nurseries, he said.

Floodwaters entered factories including the storeroom of Chittagong Builders and Machineries.

People of inundated areas of Dogair and Rayerbagh take boats to travel to the main road from home.

Munmun, daughter of CNG autorickshaw driver Mokhlesur Rahman of the area, said they travelled about one kilometre by boat to fetch drinking water from a petrol pump and they make at least six strips a day.

Rafique Mia, a resident of Medical Road in Matuail, said tenants left his house because of the floodwater.

He said waterlogging hindered development of the area and laid the blame at the door of a multi-storey building. Rafique said the owner of the building that he said partly blocked the drainage system,, had wished to set up a garment factory, but the water made him change the plan.

The three-kilometre-long road from Matuail Mother and Children Health Complex to Shahidnagar is underwater. Inhabitants have to pay Tk 30 to travel the three kilometre road, he said.

Harun-or-Rashid of Shahidnagar said gas connection had been snapped in the area. His house was under waist-high water and they found it hard to cook food too, he said.

Dulal Mia said he was in trouble with his three cows as they was barely a dry place for them. His wife and daughters had been suffering from diseases.

Diseases may break out in the area if the floods ran for long. Most of the people of the area have already been suffering from skin diseases caused by the dirty water.

bdnews24.com/gma/rm/bd/2021 hours