Landslide deaths

HILLS that once protected the port city of Chittagong from the fury of devastating cyclones have come down burying about 120 people alive following heavy downpour which measured little more than nine inches in 24 hours on Monday last. Many people including the key functionaries of the caretaker government have correctly pointed at years of mindless cutting down of the hills for creating plain lands for housing or taking soil for earth filling of low lying areas as the main cause of the disaster that has paralysed life in the second largest city of Bangladesh. Landslide is nothing new in hilly areas. But the scale of the present landslide has been the worst recorded in Bangladesh so far.

The tragedy is definitely the result of short-sighted development activities of some greedy people who ignored the law and rules against hill cutting, and managed to escape the arm of the law for years. Government functionaries have expressed their resolve to punish those responsible for hill cutting which might have weakened the base of the remaining hills in the city. Apparently with their bases mostly removed the hills were unable to remain stable after the percolation of rainwater into their soil and the outcome of the landslide of unimaginable proportions. Most of the city went under waist to chest deep water due to the heavy monsoon downpour.

With the hills turned unstable, residents of the port city run the risk of experiencing maximum fury of cyclones and other sea storms which are becoming increasingly destructive due to global warming and rising sea levels. Rescue operations are still on in the Hathazari, Bakolia, Halishahar and Pahartali areas worst affected by landslide and rescuers fear that at least another 50 bodies might still be remaining trapped under the soil that has come down the hills destroying the human habitats at their feet. The urgent task now is to continue the search to find if anybody still remained trapped alive or dead and rehabilitate the affected families.

The rescue and relief operations should be followed by an extensive survey of the state of the hills with a view to identifying the threat, if any, that their instability might pose. Such a survey would also lead to identification of the homes which run the risk of being run over by landslide in the event of heavy rainfall. Risky buildings and houses used as offices or residences should be relocated as far as possible with government support to prevent future tragedies. Alongside this, the authorities concerned should take all possible measures with a view to ensuring that hill cutting and denudation of hills not only in and around the city but also elsewhere in the country is stopped effectively to prevent such tragedies in future.