The five lakh people who reside along the canal are the worst sufferers.

The six-kilometre Khal (canal) along with 11 other canals, including Jamal Khan Khal, Mirza Khal, Hizra Khal and Chatteswary Khal, drain out the rain water as well as sewer water from 20 square kilometre areas of the port city to the river Karnaphuli and the Bay of Bengal. The canal is considered as the backbone of the city's drainage system.

The Tk 25.50 crore project soling work of canal bed was completed in 2006 without any respite from waterlogging due to incomplete digging on its mouth. Poor maintenance and freestyle dumping of household and other wastes are other reasons that aggravate the situation during the rainy season. As a result the canal becomes silted to overflow and flood the neighbouring areas, including the traditional business hubs of Chaktai, Khantunganj and Asadganj.

At the same time waterlogging and inundation cause untold sufferings and huge loss of properties to the city dwellers even after a little downpour with the onset of the rainy season.

People living along the canal at Bakalia, Chawk Bazar, Bohaddarhat, Chaktai, Badurtala, Kapasgola, Dewan Bazar, Chandgaon, Panchlaish, Katalganj, DC Road, Ghat Farhadbeg, Muradpur, Sholoshahar, Hajipara, Madarbari, Pahtarghata, Halishahar, Saraipara, Eidgaon, Gosaildanga, Bandartila and Hamidchar areas suffer most due to the water logging.

About 135 areas of 41 wards in the port city go down under knee-deep or waist-deep water with a shower of only 50 millimetre, sources said. They said unplanned construction of structures encroaching on canals, insensible urbanisation and navigability of the city canals are worsening the inundation problem.

As per RS Survey, the original width of Chaktai canal was 200 feet while it was 160 feet according to BS Survey, which has come down to just 40 feet in recent years, sources said.

They said the depth of this all-important canal was 20 feet even 25 years ago while it is now only 10 feet, and several points less than that.

Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) has taken an initiative to evict the encroachers from both the sides of the canal to regain at least 100 feet width to make it viable from economic and environmental points of view. The CCC asked the business leaders and people's representatives of Chaktai and adjoining areas to remove their illegal structures to help save the canal.