Rickshaws move through an inundated road stretch at Sobhanighat in the Sylhet city after downpour in the past few days. Due to poor drainage, most of the city roads go under water, causing serious sufferings to the city people. — New Age photo

Water stagnation in the Sylhet city has turned acute at the very beginning of the rainy season because of poor drainage.
Most of the city areas go under water even after a brief shower as the rainwater cannot pass through most of the drains which remain clogged with wastes, people in different city areas alleged.
They blamed absence of adequate number of drains and not repairing the existing ones over the years, especially in the residential areas, for the stagnation of rain water.
Not only the residential areas, main streets in the city centre that include Bandarbazar, Zindabazar, Baruthkhana, Taltala, Sheikhghat, Kazirbazar, Hawapara, Chowhatta, Mirabazar, Naiyorpul, Zatarpur, Sobhanighat, Dargah Mahall, Mirer Maidan, Lamabazar and Mirza Jangal go under ankle- to knee-deep water even after half-an-hour shower, they claimed.
Rafiq Ahmed, a resident of Khujar Khola, alleged that the city corporation authorities so far did not take any step to construct new drain along many lanes and by-lanes in their area.
‘A good number of drains already have already disappeared as they have not been repaired in the past seven years,’ he added.
Selim Ahmed Rani, councilor of ward 26 which covers Khujar Khola, told New Age that local influential people have occupied most of the drains.
‘That is why, the drains were not reconstructed,’ the word councilor explains.
Abdul Mannan of Shiekhghat in the city said the roadside drains in the area had not been repaired for long, which badly hampered the drainage in the area.
‘The rainwater submerges not only the streets, but the courtyards of most of households and ground-floors of multi-storey buildings in our area as the dilapidated drainage is not enough to drain out stagnant water,’ Abdul Mannan added.
The Sylhet City Corporation authorities, however, attributed this to rampant use and disposal of banned polythene bags that block the drains and intensify water stagnation in the city.
Talking to New Age, Sylhet city corporation chief executive engineer Nur Azizur Rahman said they were aware of people’s suffering caused by stagnant water in the city.
Saying that most of the drains across the city were already repaired and cleaned before the beginning of the rainy seasons, he said, ‘Unabated use of polythene shopping bags and inconsiderate dumping of these bags is seriously hampering the city drainage.’
SCC acting mayor Mohammed Shahjahan said they had already sit with of the environmental and urban engineering department of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology last week for finding out a sustainable way to address the problem.
‘Responding to our request, the urban engineering experts agreed to work for preparing a work plan to address water stagnation in the city,’ the acting mayor said.
SUST environmental and urban engineering professor Zahir-bin Alam told New Age that they had agreed with the city corporation to work out a plan to address the crisis.
‘We are thinking over a short-term and a long-term strategy. Steps to channel the stagnant water into the nearby canals and water bodies from different areas in the city would be recommended under the short-term strategy and then to re-digging the main canals in the city for a sustainable solution to the problem,’ Professor Alam added.