DHAKA, 14 July 2005 — A UN official has warned of severe flooding in Dhaka unless the filling up of canals and lagoons is stopped. “Last week’s flooding in Dhaka should be a wake-up call for Bangladesh,” said Douglas Casson Coutts, chairman of the Disaster and Emergency Response (DER) Group in Dhaka Tuesday. Talking to newsmen, Douglas said, “Why should an early monsoon rainfall in the month of June or even in early July inundate the capital this way?” Douglas described the waterlogging as an obvious result of filling up of water bodies and construction of illegal structures on water outlets, faulty drainage system and “bad water management in the city.” He said: “Rainwater has to go somewhere. If all the lakes in the city get narrowed down and if drains are clogged how do we expect Dhaka to escape waterlogging? These are man-made problems,” he said.
