A three-year-old girl died after falling into an uncovered drain in the Halishahar area in the Chattogram city on Wednesday amid severe waterlogging in several parts of the port city due to heavy overnight rainfall.
The rainfall disrupted daily life and prompted concerns over possible landslides in hilly areas of the city.
According to the Bangladesh Meteorological Department, the showers are likely to continue for another one to two days.
The deceased toddler is Humaira Akhter, daughter of Abdur Rahman, a lineman working for a local cable connection company. Her family lives in a colony adjacent to Anandipur Mosque at Halishahar.
Locals said that Humaira was playing with a ball at about 3:00pm in the Anandipur area when her ball fell into the drain.
Chattogram Fire Service assistant director Md Anowar Hossain said that the slab covering the drain had been removed earlier and due to the accumulated rainwater, the drain was not visible.
The child accidentally stepped into it and was swept away by the current, he said, adding that people tried to rescue the girl, but were unsuccessful.
On information, the firefighters launched a search and retrieved her body, not far from the spot where she went missing.
The body was recovered at about 3:45pm, said Anowar.
Later the body was taken to the Chattogram Maa-O-Shishu Hospital at Agrabad where the on-duty doctors declared her dead on arrival.
On April 18, during a downpour, a battery-run auto-rickshaw fell into a drain in the city鈥檚 Chawkbazar area. A six-month-old girl named Seherish, who was in her mother鈥檚 arms, was swept away and found dead nearly 14 hours later, about five kilometres away in the Chaktai canal.
At least 15 people have died after falling into canals and drains in Chattogram over the past six years 鈥� two in 2020, five in 2021, three in 2023, three in 2024 and two in 2025.
Among them seven were children, three women, including university and college students, and five men.
On Wednesday, several low-lying neighbourhoods, including GEC crossing, Kapasgola, Katalganj, Panchlaish Residential Area, Sholokbahar, Mehedibagh, Pathantuli, Agrabad commercial zone, Shantibagh and Halishahar Residential Area in the city, reportedly witnessed ankle to knee-deep water accumulation.
Water levels further rose at midday as tidal waters compounded the rain-induced flooding, worsening the suffering of city dwellers.
According to the BMD Patenga office, the port city recorded 153.6 millimetres of rainfall in the 24 hours leading up to Wednesday noon.
Between 6:00am and 12:00pm alone, 77 millimetres of rain were recorded on the day.
Mohammad Ismail Bhuiyan, a meteorologist at the Patenga office, said that the ongoing rainfall was taking place due to the active monsoon.
鈥楾he showers are likely to continue for another one to two days,鈥� he said, adding, 鈥榗ontinuous downpour also raises the risk of landslides in hilly areas.鈥�
Ikhtiar Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury, chief conservancy officer of the Chattogram City Corporation, said that despite repeated efforts to clean the drains, waterlogging persisted due to the natural gradients.
Three government entities are implementing four major infrastructure projects for the past five to 11 years at a total cost of Tk聽14,349 crore to combat waterlogging in the port city.
These projects have already consumed Tk聽8,312 crore and are reportedly nearing completion. But the projects have a little impact on the port city鈥檚 situation so far.
The Chattogram Development Authority is implementing two projects, the CCC and Bangladesh Water Development Board are executing one project each.