Under water for over 36 hours!

"Where were you for so long?" The frustration was palpable in the voices of the residents. "It's been 36 hours since the rain stopped, and our homes are still underwater!"

These were the cries that greeted these correspondents when visiting Riazbag and Shipahibagh areas in Khilgaon of Dhaka on Wednesday. Even a day and a half after the rain stopped, these areas remained partially submerged.

Beds and other furniture in our homes have been ruined. Our landlady let us stay at her place, so we have taken shelter there. The city corporation doesn't take any initiative to fix the situation, and this happens every monsoon.

— Yasmin, resident of Ward 3

On Riazbag Road 6, Shahidul Islam, Monir Hossain, and two others were seen clearing a drain, desperately trying to pump out the stagnant water.

We initially mistook them for city corporation workers. However, they revealed they were residents who had taken matters into their own hands.

"Our homes, alongside the roads they are on, have been underwater for almost two days. Still, no one from the city corporation even bothered to visit us," Shahidul said. 

The area falls under Ward 23 of Dhaka North City Corporation.

The dilapidated road leading out of Riazbag, riddled with potholes for years, was now a murky expanse of ankle-deep water. While vehicles navigated the treacherous path, a nearby slum painted a bleaker picture, with stagnant water invading nearly 100 homes inside it.

After the day-long rainfall on Monday, the slum and adjacent roads went under waste-length water, while two days later on Wednesday, the slum was still under knee to ankle-length water.

The residents, mostly women, were seen scooping out dirty water from their cramped living quarters.

Sharmin, a resident, described the harrowing ordeal. "The water started rising on Monday evening," she recounted. "By nightfall, everything was submerged. My family, including three young children, huddled together on our bed," she said.

Rahmatullah, 19, another slum dweller, said some of the quarters were entirely underwater, compelling the dwellers to take shelter elsewhere.

Bahadur Khan, another dweller, said, "No one ever comes to clear the drains or pick up the waste. The residents do these themselves. The previous councillor did some work, but the current one didn't do anything for us."

The woes extended beyond homes, as a rickshaw garage on the same road remained submerged for over a day, crippling the livelihood of its pullers.

"We couldn't take out our rickshaws and earn any income," Yunus Ali, a rickshaw puller, said, adding, "We were stranded, unable to even access food or proper sanitation."

His colleague, Abu Sayeed, echoed his sentiment. "This is a nightmare we face every monsoon," he said.

There was ankle-deep water when we visited the place on Wednesday.

It is important to reiterate that not a single drop of rain has been recorded in the area since Tuesday morning after the relentless rain throughout Monday, a consequence of Cyclone Remal.

One of these correspondents had his own terrifying experience returning to his Riazbag home from work that night.

When he crossed Hazipara Boubazar area wading through knee-length water, and was about to enter Riazbag, he stumbled upon a scene of utter chaos. The water level was easily above waist length.

Darkness engulfed the place as power lines were severed. Vegetables, utensils, and all sorts of debris were floating in the water. Suddenly, a voice from behind said, "Don't go any further; bodies are floating in the water."

Looking back, he saw two youths barely standing on top of an elevated platform.

Though shaken, the correspondent didn't believe the duo at first. However, he turned back and sought refuge at a friend's place for the night rather than proceeding towards his home.

He was shocked the next morning after realising those youths were not entirely wrong.

Four people died in Dhaka on Monday due to electrocution while wading through waterlogged streets. Among them was Md Rakib, a 25-year-old auto-rickshaw puller who was electrocuted while charging his vehicle at the very same garage where we talked to Yunus and Sayeed.

Another victim, Moriom Begum, a 45-year-old garment worker living in Ice Cream Lane of Shipahibagh, met a similar fate.

The Daily Star has a video that shows the woman floating in the water after being electrocuted by wires on an electric pole.

Both of them were rushed to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, where they were declared dead, as confirmed by Bacchu Mia, in-charge of DMCH police outpost.

From Riazbag, we reached Ice Cream Lane, which falls under ward 3 of Dhaka South City Corporation.

Although water has mostly receded from the streets, the residents claimed the area was submerged for a whole day, even after the rain stopped.

Then we heard a woman approaching us. "Come with me; I will take you to my building. The ground floor is still under water.

It was a two-storied building. There were four units on the ground floor. The entire floor was still submerged on Wednesday afternoon, almost 38 hours after the rain. The residents had locked their homes and shifted elsewhere.

"Beds and other furniture in our homes have been ruined. Our landlady let us stay at her place, so we have taken shelter there," said Yasmin, who stays there.

"The drainage system doesn't work, as the drains are filled with trash. The city corporation doesn't take any initiative to fix these. This situation occurs every monsoon," she added.

When we were talking to her, a few others approached us and took us to another two-storey building.

The situation was exactly the same there.

Seeking anonymity, another person said, "The councillor of Ward 3 is always absent. Our demands for a better life have fallen on his deaf ears."

We went to the DSCC Ward 3 office to meet Md Maksud Hossain, the councillor. He was absent.

Then after calling him over phone several times, he picked up. After we introduced ourselves, he said he could not talk until next week and disconnected the call. We couldn't reach him ever since.

However, we could talk to Shakhawat Hossain Showkat, councillor of DNCC ward-23, where Riazbag is situated.

"I acknowledge that certain areas in the ward, like Riazbag, face severe waterlogging whenever it rains. The drainage system in these areas has faults, for which, even if we do some temporary work to reduce the water, it doesn't bear much fruit," he said.

When asked why no city corporation cleaners were seen despite the locality being submerged for over a day, he replied, "Even if we work, water does not go away. It's like swimming with our hands tied."

"However, we are going to call for a special tender to work on the drainage system in these areas in June. Hopefully, by December, the work will be done. Till then, I'd ask the residents to be a bit patient," he added.

Both the executive engineers of DNCC zone-3 and DSCC zone-2 declined to comment, saying only the public relation officers can comment in this regard.

However, DSCC PRO could not be reached over the phone despite repeated attempts. The DNCC PRO upon hearing the question said he is attending a programme and would call back later, which he did not till filing of this report.