Landslide risks after heavy rain prompt evacuations in Chattogram

Local authorities open 19 shelters to move people away from the hills

Chattogram district administration making announcements through loudspeakers urging people to move to the shelters on Saturday, Aug 05, 2023.

The authorities in Chattogram have started evacuating people from the hills at risk of landslides as heavy rains have continued to batter the port city for the third day.

The district administration opened 19 shelters after launching the evacuation on Saturday morning, said Assistant Commissioner Md Omar Faruk.

He said the authorities were hoping to complete the evacuation by evening although only a few residents left the places vulnerable to landslides after the district administration began making announcements through loudspeakers urging people to move to the shelters in the morning.

Later, Deputy Commissioner Abul Bashar Mohammad Fakhruzzaman led a drive during which the authorities moved 250 families to shelters from the hills of the Akbar Shah area, Faruk said.

Cooked meals and dry food will be served to the evacuees at the shelters, he added.

The Bangladesh Meteorological Department recorded 86 mm of rainfall in Chattogram in the 24 hours to 6 pm.

Ujjal Kanti Pal, an assistant meteorologist at BMD’s Patenga centre, fears that more rains will hit the city in the next 24 hours.

Starting at midnight, monsoon rains might continue even until Monday, he said.

After enduring prolonged heat, it began raining in the city on Thursday with some intervals that continued overnight.

The city was flooded on Friday morning. Around 7:30 am, parts of a hill collapsed on a microbus on the Lalkhan Bazar-Tiger Pass road.

Traffic resumed more than two hours after the authorities removed the debris of the landslide.