WATER stagnation during the monsoon season has become a perennial problem, questioning the efforts that authorities have put in to resolve the issue. The photograph that 抖阴精品 published on July 11 shows schoolchildren making their way stepping onto broken concrete blocks on a submerged road at Jurain in Dhaka. The photographs that 抖阴精品 published on July 10 show a similar situation in Chattogram and Sylhet. Water stagnation often risks people as they can fall inside manholes or craters on submerged roads. In September 2023, four pedestrians died by electrocution on a submerged road near the Mirpur Commerce College after a heavy rainfall created water stagnation. An electric wire broke and fell into the water. Unmarked potholes are also a cause of road accidents. There is a public health issue with stagnant water becoming a breeding ground for mosquitoes, leading to diseases such as dengue and chikungunya, which have already marked their incidence. Both of Dhaka鈥檚 city authorities have projects to contain water stagnation but with little to no impact on the ground.
The causes of water stagnation are public knowledge. An ineffective sewerage system, an uncoordinated, ineffective waste management system and encroachment on canals are primarily blamed for the problem. A 2019 Bangladesh Institute of Planners study says that Dhaka has lost 3,440 acres, out of 9,556 acres, of designated flood flow zones, retention areas and water bodies since the publication of the detailed area plan in 2010. A River and Delta Research Centre study has identified 35 worst-affected neighbourhoods in 2024, largely because of encroachment on canals. In Chattogram, soil is washed down during rainfall owing to hill cutting and it chokes drains and water bodies, causing flooding. Besides, all kinds of solid wastes, municipal, industrial and medical, compound this situation and cause severe water stagnation. Many of the 144 big and small canals in Dhaka have lost their original state as they have not been dredged. The original average depth of Chaktai Canal was once at 30鈥�40 feet, which has come down to 3鈥�4 feet at different points. The city authorities have taken several initiatives to improve the situation, but it is uncertain when they could resolve the problem.
Water stagnation is a case of governance failure in environmental protection and a result of unplanned urban development. The government needs to seriously take up the issue of reclaiming and restoring water bodies in all urban centres so that rainwater drains out effectively.
