Waterlogging in Dhaka continues to be a menace. Dhaka is now a sinking city. No, it is not threatened by anything like the Karnaphuli dam. Nor is the sea coming towards it to gulp it down in one gigantic movement.
It is simply the fact that every time it rains, the capital gets lost in the downpour. It is a condition that has quite become the norm.
Incessant rains simply make Dhaka disappear under billowing waters, with the roads not being visible at all. Vehicles, from cars to buses and trucks and three-wheelers, go out of order as water enters the engines. Rickshaw pullers, unable to do much, lose in terms of earnings since there is really nowhere for them to go.
Children and adults, compelled to leave home every morning on different normal pursuits, are stranded. Businesses suffer and hospitals cannot provide services to patients.Over the years, much has been said about the decline of Dhaka, about its poor drainage system.
The media and citizens have been clamoring for years for the city to be given back the old system of drains that once used to carry off rainwater, leaving normal life untouched. It is not that rainfalls are a new phenomenon for the city, since such weather patterns have more or less been a regular feature of its climatic history.
The difference between the past and now is that in the old days urban planning happened to be serious business, with citizens getting the assurance and the reality that Dhaka would be a comfortable place of abode for all. And today?
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