Dhaka dwellers’ waterlogging woes
Farid Hasan Ahmed :
The citizens of Dhaka have been suffering massively as several areas water-logged due to late monsoon non-stop raining. Street dealers and low income people faced difficult situation.
Few days before four people were electrocuted to death in Dhaka as a live electric wire tore and fell on a road submerged in water after heavy rain battered the city. Many areas went under water, leaving citizens to suffer enormously.
On May 17 2023, addressing an event at the Nagar Bhaban, Dhaka South City mayor declared that there would be no water stagnation this year except in some pockets of the DSCC areas.
On February 22, he also said that his office had taken steps so that rainwater, even after a heavy fall, could run off within 15 minutes in the DSCC areas during the monsoon.
In July 2017, LGRD and Cooperatives Minister mentioned ‘I promise that you will not see waterlogging from next year’.
But citizens are witnessing the same problem and facing various sufferings due to authorities’ induced disasters in various parts of Dhaka city.
The two duty bearing authorities related with the main reason of sufferings due to water logging are Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority DWASA and both portions of Dhaka City Corporation DCC.
Dhaka is vulnerable to floods, water logging, and fire, building collapse, earthquake, disease epidemics and various forms of Pollution. The city is surrounded by rivers.
So, flooding and water logging, not only due to heavy and erratic rainfall, but also because of its failure of drainage capacity and management, is of utmost likelihood.
The drainage capacity is decreasing rapidly due to unauthorized settlements and unlawful occupation of marshlands by land grabbers.
Waterlogging Risk Management of Dhaka city requires human sensitivity and intervention which necessitates extraordinary decisions and actions. Political considerations along with not-good practices across the policy makers and duty bearers are a significant factor in the preparation for, response to, recovery from, mitigation of and prevention from disaster events.
For most countries, traditional security concerns have precedence over disasters. Military weapons are in priority list instead of procuring disaster management equipment or installing water treatment.
Public can admonish a local or national government due to its lack of ability to handle a disaster particularly in the next elections. On the other hand, their success in disaster risk management may pay off in the next elections.
The authorities could consider the existing vulnerability of the city dwellers, and undertake different strategies to overcome the situations for future.
The major areas of interventions for reducing disaster risk could be:
Integrating Disaster Risk Reduction in existing development works and future initiatives of different government ministries/departments and Non-Government organizations (NGOs) of the country is very much important.
Rendering to experts, wetlands, flood flow zones, rainstorm water preservation ponds and waterways have all been illegally occupied and filled up by the politically and administratively backed up people. Some measures should be taken, and totally fresh and courageous move should be initiated immediately.
The government authorities need to redesign their development programmes with the active participation of the most affected city dwellers to ensure that they maximize disaster mitigation potential and incorporate traditional community coping practices which are fit technically, politically, environmentally and economically.
Some targeted but tested risk reduction activities both structural (waterways protection, infrastructure) and non-structural could be under taken in consultation with community at risk and relevant experts/organizations.
Proper feasibility and cost benefit analysis of independent authorities is very much needed for taking any structural initiatives.
A public hearing and consultation is important in this regard which could be organized by public representatives with the participation of technical bodies and civil societies.
The respective authorities at different level should strengthened capacity building initiatives of city corporations and communities at sufferings and risk. Capacity building is a process rather than one-shot event. It is a multi – organizations wide process. Capacity building needs to be deep rooted into the organizational strategies for having long-term outcome and genuine commitment from the corporation.
A categorized and coordinated effort is needed to further strengthening local level planning; people based implementation and monitoring process and the proper allocation of resource to City Corporations with appropriate governance mechanism for suffering/risk proof programme in the vulnerable locations of the city.
Operative paces alongside with political determination, administrative diligence, appropriate resources, and accurate planning and its implementation, monitoring and community-feedback mechanism are of utmost urgency for the concerned authorities and organizations for the benefit of large number of citizens
. Otherwise, the sufferers of Dhaka City only will continue to see the various poorly governed projects with huge expenses but very tiny outcome.
(The writer is Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation Expert, and a Development Lawyer).
