Cover all open drains before monsoon

Yet another life was lost in Chattogram's notorious open drains. These recurring drain-related fatalities—at least 11 since 2017—can no longer be written off as accidents. It's criminal negligence on the part of responsible agencies, and it is time officials at the Chattogram Development Authority (CDA) and the Chattogram City Corporation (CCC) accepted responsibility for them.

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Chattogram needs all its drains covered

In the last seven years, the media hammered ad nauseam the urgency of covering the open drains and building retaining walls along the canals, but all that seemed to fall on deaf ears. In 2021, the CCC found 5,527 risky spots along the drains, canals and footpaths across a total of 19 square kilometres in the city. Such findings should have spurred urgent measures to mitigate the risks by building necessary infrastructure. However, three years on, only 80 percent of the risky spots along open drains have been covered with slabs and around 70 percent of retaining walls built along canals, as claimed by a top CCC official recently. Obviously, that did not prevent the death of seven-year-old Saidul Islam, who fell into an uncovered drain near his home at the Goshaildanga area of Agrabad, or other recent victims.

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Chattogram's Achilles' heel

Usually, these open drains and canals become death traps for unsuspecting pedestrians during the monsoon season when, clogged with silt and waste, they overflow or get submerged. However, the circumstances of Saidul's death—he went missing on Saturday and his body was found a day later at a time when there was no waterlogging—reveal the severity of the risks. It is unfathomable why four ongoing projects worth Tk 14,389 crore, meant to free the city from the curse of waterlogging partly by renovating the canals and drains, did not take this into consideration. Mega projects are supposed to not just make life easier, but also keep it safe.

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How many more will die before Chattogram’s drains are fixed?

Instead of playing the blame game about who is responsible for installing slabs and building retaining walls, the CDA and the CCC must work collaboratively to make all the drains and connected canals safer. Any jurisdictional or fund-related issues delaying their interventions must be sorted out immediately. Also, with the monsoon season just around the corner, some temporary measures like installing warning signs in front of open drains will be very helpful.