Staff Reporter:
Prime Minister Tarique Rahman yesterday called upon the Members of Parliament (MPs) to take initia-tives to create public awareness to resolve water logging.
The Leader of the House made the call responding to a concern raised by treasury bench lawmaker from Chattogram-10 constituency Sayeed Al Noman in the Jatiya Sangsad (JS) yesterday with Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad, Bir Bikram, in the chair.
The lawmaker raised the issue of severe water logging in Chattogram city and the sufferings of the city-dwellers under a point of order.
The Prime Minister said, “Since today, I have also seen in the news that due to heavy rainfall, a large part of Chattogram city has gone under water and people are suffering”.
“This problem is not only in Chattogram; it exists across the country. There are many places in Dhaka where drains get blocked during rainfall, causing water logging. This is a long-standing problem,” he continued.
“We have already started canal excavation programs. In urban areas, the problem is that lakes, large drainages, and canals get blocked, causing severe water logging. We use items like plastic bottles and polythene and irresponsibly discard them into canals and waterbodies, blocking the mouths of the canals and drains and creating water logging,” he added.
Tarique Rahman said the government is trying to clean these drains, adding, in Dhaka, several have been cleaned, but it has been noticed that within seven to ten days, people are again irresponsibly blocking these canals by throwing various kinds of wastes into them.
He said the issue also exists in Dhaka-12 constituency and noted that he discussed the matter with law-maker from the constituency, Saiful Alam.
Calling it a major challenge, the Prime Minister said the government will continue efforts, but public awareness is essential.
