77 Just over an hour's heavy rain yesterday once again exposed the capital city's poor drainage system and lax management of traffic, bringing vehicles on all the major roads and streets to a standstill for hours.

Leading urban planners have said the city's choked drainage system causes inundation of streets and roads after heavy or even normal monsoon rain.

Traffic experts think the slackness of traffic police further worsened yesterday's gridlock triggered by sudden rain.

Kakrail Road: Heavy rains caused immense sufferings to thousands of people across the city yesterday. Schoolchildren suffered a lot, as many got drenched in rainwater and had to wade through knee- to waist-deep water. Photo: Star

Professor Md Mujibur Rahman, an expert on the city's drainage, has said the loss of designated flood plains to developers and canals to land grabbers has virtually clogged the city's drainage channels.

"The situation will keep worsening unless immediate actions are taken to reclaim the lost floodplains and canals," he said.

Rainwater is carried through natural canals and large diameter concrete pipes to flood plains and rivers, but as the canals are constricted with structures and clogged with solid wastes, the city streets are submerged every time there is rain, said Mujibur, a teacher of civil engineering department at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.      

Khondaker M Ansar Hossain, an urban planner, said canals, water retention areas, flood plains and rivers collect, carry and retain rainwater and are connected with each other in a complete drainage network.

Manik Mia Avenue

Hossain, who was a technical expert on the Detailed Area Plan (DAP) of Dhaka, also said the government has ignored experts' repeated warnings against filling of dedicated water retention areas and flood flow zones to help real estate companies to do their business.

According to the Flood Action Plan and DAP, the city should have 5,523 acres of conserved water retention areas, 20,093 acres of canals and rivers, and 74,598 acres of flood flow zones. 

Since DAP gazette notification in mid-2010, nearly all of the conservable wetlands have been filled up, claimed Hossain.

Taqsem A Khan, managing director of Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority, said traffic movement came to a halt as recession of rainwater was very slow due to clogged storm sewers.

However, he declined to make any further comment, saying, "We have at best 22 percent storm sewer coverage of the 360-sq km area that Wasa serves."

The Dhaka master plan area covers 1,528 sq km.

Near Asad Gate: Numerous vehicles broke down while negotiating waterlogged streets. Photo: Star

LAX TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT

Urban Transport Expert Prof Shamsul Hoque said the traffic police will never be able to manage any huge traffic mess with their existing management mechanism that lacks a well-planned system as well as the required equipment.

"People must be informed beforehand if a road becomes unusable, and vehicles must be diverted. If people know earlier, they will take an alternative route," said Haque, who teaches at the Buet's civil engineering department.

He said there was no such announcement or initiative yesterday and traffic police tried to manage the vehicles on the thoroughfares in their usual way, which proved ineffective after heavy rainfall.

"At one stage, things went out of control and police gave up managing vehicles," said the teacher.

Haque said traffic situation will turn even worse in the coming days as none seems to take the matter seriously.

Heavy rain caused chaos for thousands of commuters across the city yesterday. Schoolchildren suffered a lot, as many got drenched in rainwater. Numerous vehicles broke down while negotiating waterlogged streets. Photo: Star

LGRD MINISTER IN PARLIAMENT

Replying to lawmakers' queries, LGRD Minister Khandaker Mosharrof Hossain yesterday in parliament said heavy rainfall led to intolerable waterlogging that caused sufferings to commuters.

Jatiya Party MP Rawshan Ara Mannan raised the issue during a question-answer session.

Strongly criticising the two mayors of Dhaka city corporations, the JP lawmaker said they just hold meetings but we don't see any result in resolving the waterlogging problem.

She questioned whether the LGRD ministry has any plan to relieve people of their sufferings from poor drainage system in the capital.

The minister said the amount and intensity of downpour in this season was abnormally high.

He also said the city's drainage system was not constructed considering excessive downpour. Therefore, sometimes it takes seven to eight hours for the water to be receded from the streets.

 He, however, assured that the government has already taken a development project to improve the capital's drainage system which is scheduled to be completed in three years.