Dhaka turns moon-like

The thoroughfare of Mohammadpur Udyan residential area in the capital has been in this shocking state for quite a while with authorities concerned doing not much about it. Photo: Palash Khan

Zamir Ali wades through ankle-deep sewage water that has submerged the street in front of his house at Shahid Nagar. The 45-year-old government employee pulls his trousers up to his knees as he tries to keep his balance with each careful step he takes.
“It stinks,” Zamir complains, covering his nose with a cloth mask.
On this weekend morning Zamir is on his way to a kitchen market. The market is three streets away from his humble residence, where he lives with his wife and two young children. Zamir plans to buy some fish and vegetables for the family.
He shows hardly any annoyance or surprise. He has become used to life in the midst of sewer-spewing dirty water, thanks to the utter negligence of the Dhaka City Corporation in fixing the bad drainage system in this congested residential area.
Again, as a consequence of living in such an environment, he has grown accustomed to various itching and other skin problems assailing him. The doctors pin the blame for these ailments on the sewage water.
“Almost everyone in my family suffers from skin diseases,” says Zamir. “We have gone complaining from one official to another. But there is no remedy.”
Zamir's plight does not end here.
There have been days when he has accidentally slipped into open manholes, ending up with bruised legs. That can mean only one thing: more visits to doctors and a fast thinning wallet.
“It is like living in a hell,” an exasperated Zamir almost shouts so that his neighbours can hear him.
His complaints are echoed by other residents of Shahid Nagar. They point to myriad problems ranging from sewage spillover to swarms of mosquitoes, problems that make their lives miserable day and night.
When it rains, residents welcome it not merely because of its cooling effect on a hot day, but also because it keeps the mosquitoes away.
“When it rains we celebrate,” says Zamir. “We sleep soundly since the rains drive the mosquitoes out.”
Zamir feels depressed about city life, especially as his children are deprived of outdoor games owing to the lack of a playground. They have little choice other than playing on the dirty and rickety road in front of their home.
The mayor of Dhaka city cares little about playgrounds for children, says Zamir. He goes on, “The mayor is not even interested.”
Such pictures of misery, of the lack of civic amenities for the nearly 15 million residents of the nation's capital are a common sight all across the city.
Roads and lanes have been in a shambles because of repair work not being undertaken. The corporation claims, though, to have spent Tk. 1,050 crores in the last nine years during the tenure of Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka on road repair.
Those roads which have gone through some repair do not fare well either. City dwellers complain that with contractors using poor materials for road repair, the roads become unusable in less than a year's time.
The road from Kazipara main road to Maikwala Mosque less than half a kilometer away has been in pitiable conditions for the last five years, says Monir Hossain, a resident of the area.
Though half the road was repaired around six months ago, it has already started to deteriorate because of the poor quality of the repair work done, he says.
DCC has around 3000 kms of roads, including the main thoroughfares and lanes and by-lanes.
Cleaning-up work in many areas is not done properly, which causes sufferings to the city dwellers. This negligence has not only been giving rise to unhygienic conditions but also turning the areas into breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
Additionally, an absence of street lights in a number of areas only increases the risks of accidents and mugging.
Around two kilometers of road from Mugda Bishwa Road to Manda has had no street lights for the past eight years, complains Imtiaz Ahmed, a resident of Madartek.
He says muggers take advantage of the darkness to pounce on commuters.
A particular source of misery has been the regularity with which road digging has been undertaken during the monsoon.
ARM Salar-e-Jahan, president of Mohammadi Abashik Kalyan Samity, says that for the last five months, residents have, on account of WASA, been suffering from problems caused by road digging from Shia Mosque to Ramchandpur canal.
There are 47 parks and 10 playgrounds on the list of the DCC but most of them either have been encroached upon fully totally or seized partially, with the DCC doing almost nothing about the condition. The DCC has itself in some areas built community centres and kitchen markets through taking over the parks.
"My daughter stays home most of the day as there is no park or playground. A playground at Narinda was turned into a community centre around fifteen years ago,” says Narinda resident Asma Ahmed.
These poor civic facilities compound people's miseries day after day. Inadequate supplies of water, power and gas, together with unceasing severe traffic congestion, speak volumes of the hard times Dhaka residents have been going through.