People in the foothills living in danger

In June 2007 a landslide in Chittagong left 127 dead—yet in the eleven years since then, the still-vulnerable community living at the foothills and who are still vulnerable have still not been rehabilitated. At the time, the government had formed a high-powered committee to probe the incident which submitted a set of recommendations including permanently relocating the people living at the foothills, prohibiting housing within five kilometres of the hills, and stopping indiscriminate sand-lifting, among others. So, it is completely unacceptable that despite the lives that were lost and the recommendations made, the authorities have failed to act.

On top of that, in April the district administration launched a drive to evict these people. Our question is, where are these people supposed to go? It was the government's work to rehabilitate these 600-plus families. Even the alternative arrangement for housing that was completed in 2016 was subsequently taken over by the Chittagong City Corporation. The financial situation of these people living near the hills has so far compelled them to live in such risky conditions, and it is a blatant disregard of responsibility to evict them without ensuring alternative housing for them.

This state of affairs is unacceptable, and the wait of eleven years goes to show that it is not the lives of these people that are being prioritised. It was a prudent step by the government to form a committee of experts then—we can only hope that they will now concentrate on implementing the recommendations that were made. Otherwise, without providing alternatives, evicting these families is only adding injustice on top of the vulnerable lives that they lead.