A victim of long-term neglect compounded by reckless expropriation of hills, severe water-logging has crippled the financial capital of the country. It is now cut off from the rest of the country as a result of downpours bringing all forms of communications to a standstill.
The city faces all the tragic consequences because rainwater finds no way to run off through any semblance of a drainage system. With the main parts of the city as well as roads, rail lines and runway of the airport having been choked, communications within the city and links with other parts of the country were snapped.
As if that was not enough, parts of the port city went under pall of darkness for long hours with the Power Development Board (PDB) snapping electricity connections fearing short circuits. The heavy rain along with attendant mudslides took a toll of some 15 lives.
Clearly, the authorities slept over the aggravating condition, while during the last four to five years water-logging problem of the city has turned from bad to worse.
The cursing marooned city dwellers blamed the Chittagong City Corporation (CCC), WASA and the Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) for their suffering. How could basic infrastructural deficiency of this sprawling city be trivialised by politicking city authorities? They expressed their dissatisfaction over the CCC's inordinate delay in digging the seven-kilometre canal project. CCC commissioner in charge of the project, however, pointed to the fund crisis as well as lack of cooperation from WASA and other relevant authorities--so goes the blame trading.
We are simply appalled at the state of civic governance in the premier port city and commercial hub of the country.
We suggest measures be taken on an emergency footing to pump out the water and also cater for sanitation needs. At the same time, construction of the canal and other infrastructural projects should be undertaken on a top priority basis.
Turkish indignation over the shooting down of one of its jets by Syria in what it claims was international airspace adds a new dimension to the crisis confronting President Bashar Assad. Indeed, the crisis is what the Syrian leader has been making of it over these past many months. His stubborn refusal to see reason and be accommodative of the Syrian political opposition has already led to a wholesale erosion of trust in him. Besides, the ruthlessness with which the Syrian military has been shooting down innocent Syrian citizens all over the country points to the desperation with which the regime means to cling to power.
A huge problem for the entrenched Assad regime is its refusal to acknowledge the changes that have been taking place in the region. The people of Egypt have just elected a new president. In Libya and Tunisia, the fall of the old regimes has led, however chaotically, to change of a positive sort after years of repressive leadership. Elsewhere in the Middle East, there are all those certain grumblings for change, complaints which in time could burst into open dissent unless the regimes concerned take notice. These are facts President Assad would do well to take into account. If it is a question of how much authority he has at present, the answer is simple: morally he lost the right to govern months ago. Politically, for all the devotion of his dwindling band of fanatical followers, the ground has been shifting from under his feet.
And now the row with Turkey can only embolden bodies like Nato into rethinking policy toward Assad. He still has a chance to save Syria from himself through acknowledging the reality of his being in a hard spot. His regime is on the ropes and those nations which have so long supported it owe it to themselves to give Syrians a chance to move towards free expression. For decades, especially since the advent of Bashar Assad's father Hafez Assad in 1968, Syria has been anything but democratic. The time is here for change.
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