Moderate to heavy rain for the last few days has led to waterlogging in Noakhali municipality and Maizdi areas of the district, causing immense public suffering.
Several thousands of people of the municipality area are going through untold sufferings as the main roads of the district town and many other roads were waterlogged.
The residents of the town blamed poor drainage system and clogging of water drainage channels for the sufferings. Moreover, many others blamed the indifferent attitude of the authorities concerned.
The waterlogging situation worsened due to the torrential rain of Tuesday. According to weather office, 109 millimeter rain was recorded in the district in last 24 hours.
While visiting several areas of the municipality, this correspondent found that the premises of deputy commissioner, police superintendent’s office and some other government offices went under water. Rainwater entered into the ground floor of police superintendent’s office. Service activities were being disrupted as the water entered into the office room. Moreover, rainwater entered into the district weather office, district fisheries office, press club, red crescent, BRDB, electricity office, record room of the sub-registry office, Shaheed Bhulu Stadium, bungalow of the forest department, Noakhali Government College and many other public and private offices.
Although there was no water on the main road of the district, Town Hall intersection, Islamia Road, DC Road, Mohila College Road, Jail Road, Maizdi Bazar Road and several other roads went under several feet of water. So, several thousand people, including office goers, day labourers, faced immense sufferings.
Locals said Noakhali Municipality is one of the first class municipalities of the country. However, the authorities concerned have not taken any effective measures to mitigate the waterlogging in the town. The authorities of the municipality infrequently do some drainage work, which are substandard. It takes long time to drain even the water of a light rain. Besides, the municipality authorities hardly monitor the drains. So, people suffer during the whole rainy season. Many people suffer from several skin diseases due to the dirty stagnated water, they added.
Met Officer of Noakhali Weather Office, Md Rafikul Islam, said 82 millimeter rain was recorded in six hours until 6:00am Tuesday. Meanwhile, 109 millimeter rain was recorded in 24 hours until 6:00am Tuesday. My office has also waterlogged. I am also stuck due to the waterlogging, he added.
Noakhali Water Development Board Executive Engineer Munshi Amir Faysal said Noakhali Water Development Board has dug 161 km of canals in the town and its surrounding areas in the waterlogging prevention project. Besides, Noakhali canal has also been dug. However, the maintenance of drains and canals are needed to get rid of waterlogging completely.
Noakhali Municipality Mayor Sahid Ullyah Khan Sohel said I got information about the sufferings of the people due to the waterlogging in different areas, including government offices. Actually, such situation happened as the drains are not clean. My workers are working on it. However, it happened temporarily due to heavy rain. Hopefully, the problem will be solved within one or two days. In the meantime, a project has been taken to prevent the waterlogging in the municipality area. We will be able to start the work of drains in this rainy season, the Mayor added.
