With the rivers Buriganga, Balu and Turag still flowing below danger level, Wasa was lucky to have flushed most of the recent rainwater into these rivers just by opening the sluice gates. At the DND, Kalyanpur and Goranchadbari areas however the Wasa pump houses have been kept operational round the clock to pump this huge volume of accumulated water.

"If the water levels of the three rivers rise to another two feet, we shall have to start these pumps immediately to avoid a catastrophic waterlogging in the city," said an engineer of Wasa requesting customary anonymity.

The Wasa is placing 28 pumps at TTpara, between Syedabad and Kamlapur with a capacity of jetting out 200 cusec water per second. It has 53 pumps getting readied at Rampura with a capacity of pumping out 325 cusec water per second. The combined capacity of jetting accumulated water at the large conventional pumps at Kalyanpur, Goranchadbari and Dholaikhal pump houses is around 1,800 cusec.

At around 11am yesterday workers were seen cleaning dozens of mechanical pumps at the Rampura centre. Most of the pumps were yet to be started and needed repairs, workers there said.

"We cannot really avoid waterlogging in Dhaka with even double the number of pump houses because 250 kilometer network of storm sewerage and 2,000 kilometers of surface drains are not really adequate to drain out billions of litres of rainwater that the monsoon brings," said a Wasa official source.

"What we can assure is that by cleaning these drains, the duration of waterlogging could be greatly reduced," he added.

While Wasa prepares strongly on the vulnerable eastern part of the city, the entire stretch of the Rayer Bazar, Lalbagh areas inside the embankment start to swell with tannery wastes from Hazaribagh. Wasa officials said that they had 13 pumping points in the area between Sikder Medical to Gandaria but none except two are operational.

In some areas in the western parts of the city, black liquid wastes have accumulated along with huge volumes of rainwater. According to Water Development Board (WDB), the water level in the rivers around the city is rising rapidly.

"In a day or two we shall be forced to shut down the sluice gates to prevent river water from entering the city. Then the Wasa pumping activities will have to run 24 hours to drain out waste water as well as rainwater," said an engineer of WDB that controls the sluice gates.

Out of 350 square kilometers of the city's surface area, only 260 square kilometer area is protected by flood protection embankment. Wasa currently has a total of fund of Tk 2.5 crore for tackling drainage of storm water and also to run the pumps, sources said.