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Marooned for weeks

Ainul Haque Pramanik and Akanda Muhammad Jahid
In the rainy season, life comes to a near standstill for thousands of people due to waterlogging in the Dhaka-Narayanganj-Demra dam area.
They either remain confined to their homes or leave those temporarily to stay at their relatives' houses where life is normal.
"Along with my parents, I am going to my grandmother's house. We cannot live here any more," said six-year-old Shopna while wading through the floodwater.
Talking to The Daily Star, Nasir Uddin Mia, chairman of Matuail Union Parishad, said inadequate drainage
management, land grabbing and unplanned housing were the main reasons behind the waterlogging. This is a common picture here in the rainy season."
Around 10 lakh people in the area suffer from shortage of pure water and other problems during the rainy season every year, he said.
"Skin disease is common among the residents of the dam area." Children cannot go to schools as the roads remain under knee-deep water, added Nasir.
Abdul Jobbar, sub-divisional engineer at DND Pump House of Water Development Board, said the dam was built on 7,000 hectares of land under Dhaka-Narayanganj-Demra project in 1962-1968 primarily to protect Dhaka and Narayanganj cities from flood and facilitate irrigation in the area.
Later, many houses and other structures were built in an unplanned way, he said.
Jobbar said though 2,000 to 2,500
cusecs of water were needed to be removed per second from the dam in the rainy season, they could drain off 512 cusecs per second by four pumps. "We need 16 more pumps to do die task properly."
Romicha Begum, who has been living in the area for 27 years, said the area got waterlogged since the start of Ramadan, and the situation got worse due to heavy rainfall in the last couple of weeks.
"My husband and I are suffering from fungal infections in feet. My two daughters cannot go to school as we remain stranded inside the dam," she said.
Seeking anonymity, a dweller said the whole area was inundated as all channels to drain away water were blocked by land grabbers.
A middle-aged woman alleged that ahead of every election, local politicians make pledges to solve the problem of waterlogging but never keep