Waterlogged for four months a year!

For around four months a year -- from June to September -- thousands of residents of Balashpur Madhyapara area in Mymensingh city have to sit through debilitating waterlogging.

"I have been living in this area for 35 years. The waterlogging is a yearly phenomenon here during monsoon," said grocery shop owner Mohammad Sultan.

After every spell of heavy or moderate rainfall, the entire area gets flooded with ankle or knee-deep water for several days, said Sultan.

If the showers continue for a few days, then the courtyards of most houses go under water, said sand trader Abdus Samad.

Locals alleged the situation took a turn for the worse after the construction of the Balashpur Madhyapara road in 2013, which they say was done without proper planning.

They said the area's water used to go down a drain which was connected to the neighbouring Kewatkhali area's Railway Power House Colony's drain. From there, the water used to flow into the Brahmaputra river.

But with the passing of time, the drain got blocked for various reasons and has remained that way for many years.

"No one has taken an initiative to free up this important pathway for rainwater," said Md Saidur Rahman, a BAU employee.

The area hosts 2,000 families, with the total population numbering around 10,000, locals told this correspondent.

The situation is so dire that residents have to travel to the main road on rafts made of banana leaves before they can get on rickshaws, said Golam Mustafa, an employee at Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU).

Abdul Jobber, president of local Baitul Aman Jame Mosque, said the flooding makes it difficult for devotees to attend prayers and students to attend classes on time.

Locals said before every national and local election, candidates visit and throw around pledges to solve the crisis, but none of them have followed up. They said they have informed incumbent ward commissioner Abbas Ali Mondol several times, but to no avail.

Contacted, Mondol did not hesitate to admit the chronic problem, but said a project is underway to mitigate it.

However, Md Anwar Hossain, chief executive officer of Mymensingh City Corporation, laid a part of the blame on the construction of unplanned houses in the city's new areas.

"Our engineering department has started a feasibility study on waterlogging in the city. Necessary steps will be taken after that," said the CEO.