Sylhet residents had to bear with inundation as a three-hour-long rain submerged the city today.
Heavy rain started in Sylhet on Wednesday (14 June) morning. According to the Met Office, 46.4 mm of rain fell between 6am and 9am. At the time of writing this report at 1:30pm, it is raining intermittently in the city.
Shah Mohammad Sajib Hossain, the assistant meteorologist of Sylhet Meteorological Office, said that it rained in different areas of Sylhet during the night and sometime in the morning.
"46.4 millimetres of rain poured in from 6-9am. It is normal rainfall. Intermittent drizzle is likely throughout the day," he added.
The rain caused water to overflow on the roads and entered Raja Mansion, known as the city's book market. Businessmen claim that water entered the ground floor of the market and books worth crores have been damaged.
Golzar Ahmad, owner of Poppy Library in Raja Mansion, said that he woke up in the morning and heard that water had entered the market.
"There is knee-high water inside my shop.All the books have been damaged. Water enters our market even when it rains a little heavily. It is not possible to do business like this," he added.
As a result of heavy rains, most of the roads in the city including Medina Market, Akhalia, Subidbazar, Jalalabad, Payra and Rajargalli of Hazrat Shahjalal (RA) Shrine, Barutkhana, Hawapara, Jatarpur, Hararpar, Upshahar, Sobhanighat, Ghasitula, Taltala have been submerged.
Residents of these areas suffer as water mixed with drains and garbage entered their homes.
Knee-deep water was seen on the roads in many areas.
Shariful Islam, a resident of Jamtala area of the city, said, 'When it rains, water enters the house. Even today, many pieces of furniture have been damaged by water. The stench inside the house is unbearable. So many projects are taken by the city corporation to solve the waterlogging, a lot of money is spent, but we are not getting any benefit."
According to Sylhet City Corporation sources, after the current mayor Ariful Haque Chowdhury was elected in 2013, the government allocated Tk2.70 million for flood relief; then in 2014 Tk79.8 crore and in 2015 another Tk11 crore came. From 2016 to 2019, a project of Tk236 crore was implemented under the government budget to solve the waterlogging of the city.
The source also said that in 2019, Tk1,228 crore were allocated for the project titled "Sylhet City Corporation's flood relief, clean water supply and infrastructure construction". Under this project, Tk269.5 crore was spent in the financial year 2019-20, Tk293.59 crore in the financial year 2020-21, and Tk298.47 crore was spent in the financial year 2021-22.
327km of drains and 8km of retaining walls were constructed under the project along with other works.
Regarding the suffering of waterlogging despite such huge expenses, Sylhet City Corporation Chief Engineer Noor Azizur Rahman said that it is taking time for the water to go down through the drain due to heavy rain.
"The City Corporation team is working. If the water gets stuck somewhere due to garbage, it is being cleaned. But when the rain stops, the water will go down," he sad.
However, Awami League mayoral candidate Md Anwaruzzaman Chowdhury claimed that waterlogging is not being resolved due to unplanned development in the city and said that the residents of the city are not getting any benefit from these works due to unplanned development.
The Sylhet City Corporation election will be held on 21 June.
Candidates are promising to take effective measures to alleviate waterlogging. The current mayor and councillors said that extensive initiatives are already being taken to resolve the waterlogging.
