Living at risk of landslides

People still live on Chittagong hill slopes that are prone to landslides. The authorities have identified 30 risky hills in the port city and have asked the inhabitants to move away. In June, there was a token eviction drive but nothing has been done since. With the monsoon in full swing, it is a disaster waiting to happen. The photo was taken at Matijharna in Lalkhan Bazar last week. Photo: Anurup Kanti Das

With all indications of this year’s monsoon lingering, people live at the foot and on the slopes of hills in Chittagong city amid high risk of landslides.
Patenga Met Office forecasts that light to moderate rain may continue over the coming weeks as the monsoon persists from June to September.

However, the authorities concerned allegedly are not doing much to relocate the people living in places vulnerable to landslides.
Landslides triggered by heavy rains in the city claimed at least 185 lives in the last seven years or so with 127 in 2007 alone. The disasters took place in Lalkhan Bazar, Motijharna, Tankir Pahar, Batali Hill, Akber Shah and Pahartali areas.
Hills in these areas are constituted of flaky soil and vulnerable to heavy rainfall if the surface is not covered with vegetation, say environmentalists who also hold illegal cutting of hills responsible for such disasters.
To prevent further loss of lives, Divisional Hill Management Committee, formed after the 2007 tragedy, this year identified 30 hills as vulnerable. Most of these risky hills are in the aforementioned areas.
The committee also listed around 2,500 people for rehabilitation but many more have been left out as an estimated 10,000 people are currently living in such areas.
Some 100 families were evicted from the disaster prone areas in Tankir Pahar and Lalkhan Bazar during a drive by Chittagong district administration on June 25. But The Daily Star on August 17 observed some newly-built makeshift structures and construction activities on the sites.
Kulsum Akther, a sexagenarian claiming to have been residing in the area for 20 years, said they had no other place to go and so they had come back.
Jasmine, a resident of Yasin Colony in Akber Shah, says she lived there because the rent was cheap. She pays Tk 1,000 a month for a room.
Locals allege most of those who claim ownership of hills have no valid documents of possession. Yet they can rent out such vulnerable makeshift structures because of their political clout or ties with government officials.
During the June 25 drive, the district administration demolished 40 shacks owned and managed by Zafar, a former Wasa official, at Tankir Pahar.
No further drives, however, were conducted on “humanitarian grounds” as Ramadan approached, Divisional Commissioner Mohammad Abdullah, who heads the Divisional Hill Management Committee, told The Daily Star recently.
Long-term planning is required for eviction drives so that the victims can be rehabilitated properly, he added.
Instead of carrying out any more eviction drive this year, the committee now plans to use loudspeakers to ask the remaining dwellers to leave the risky areas.
It is the responsibility of the hills’ owners — individuals, Chittagong City Corporation (CCC), Chittagong Wasa, Bangladesh Railway and Public Works Department — to ensure that such risky abodes do not exist, said Additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) SM Abdul Kader of Chittagong.
On the rehabilitation of the displaced, Abdul Kader, who had led the June 25 drive, said the CCC is constructing a building in Batali Hill area for 150 families.
What is in store for the rest remains to be seen.