Two days of torrential rain have left large swathes of Dhaka submerged, bringing public life to a near standstill. Experts say the concrete-heavy capital has lost its natural drainage capacity, compounding the impact of such downpours. A strategic plan to mitigate waterlogging through five permanent “water retention ponds” failed after authorities neglected to secure many of the sites where structures have been built over the past 25 years before any preservation could begin. Urban planners now warn that the city faces worsening flooding risks over the coming years.
Sunday’s rainfall swamped roads and alleyways across Juraine, Shyampur, Jatrabari, Sayedabad, Lalbagh, Palashi and Azimpur. Daily activities halted, while knee- to waist-deep water accumulated in Gulshan, Dhanmondi and Khilgaon. Runoff from footpaths cascaded into Gulshan Lake, accelerated near Manarat University by a collapsed section of the lakeside walkway. Across the Dhaka University campus, water pooled to waist height in places, flooding several residential halls and the central sports ground. In Motijheel and Arambagh, pedestrians were forced to wade through waist-deep water on major thoroughfares. Rainfall continued through Monday morning as well.
Dhaka’s two city corporations noted that while the frequency of rainy days has declined recently, single-day rainfall volume has intensified. Authorities concede they lack any straightforward drainage solution for such heavy monsoon downpours. “When the capital experiences heavy rain, water takes a considerable time to recede from multiple districts,” Nur Azizur Rahman, chief engineer of Dhaka South City Corporation, told Bonik Barta. “Heavy rainfall now takes much longer to drain from several parts of the capital. In many areas, the natural drainage channels that should carry rainwater away no longer function. The amount of permeable ground that would absorb rainwater or allow it to recharge underground aquifers has also declined sharply. We are now drawing up a new plan to tackle waterlogging in Dhaka. We are planning to build new retention points, drainage outlets and sluice gates.”
Urban planners warn that Dhaka’s waterlogging will intensify as open spaces, vegetation and wetlands disappear. They argue that drainage channels alone cannot resolve the crisis without permanent reservoirs to hold peak flows. While five specific retention ponds were designated for the capital, they were never preserved, allowing construction to overrun the sites over the past two and a half decades.
“Reclaiming these retention ponds is the single most urgent intervention required to save Dhaka,” Md Ashraful Islam, chief town planner of the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk), told Bonik Barta. “Beyond holding rainwater, they mitigate urban heat, recharge aquifers and sustain biodiversity. Tragically, they face encroachment daily.”
Rajuk originally sought to shape the metropolitan area through the 20-year Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan (DMDP 1995–2015). That strategy identified and mapped five essential retention ponds to shield the city from waterlogging. Acting on the DMDP in 2010, Rajuk formulated a detailed area plan (DAP) recommending the conservation of permanent reservoirs spanning 200 to over 500 acres in Kalyanpur, Goran, Nasirabad, Beraid and Uttarkhan to manage rainwater and recharge the water table. Both the current DAP and the Dhaka WASA drainage masterplan continue to designate these zones as permanent water bodies.
A lack of enforcement, however, has exposed these reservoirs to the same steady encroachment afflicting the city’s rivers, canals and lakes. Although the government acquired land for the Kalyanpur retention pond, urban planners say it was never properly maintained. They warn that without a concerted effort to protect these municipal basins, Dhaka faces a dual future of debilitating waterlogging and acute water scarcity.
“Dhaka confronts a dire crisis,” Professor Akter Mahmud of Jahangirnagar University’s urban and regional planning department told Bonik Barta. “Every downpour submerges roads and entire neighbourhoods. No single fix exists; we must expand drainage capacity while simultaneously restoring water retention sources. There’s no alternative to the urgent conservation of the water retention ponds outlined in the DMDP.”
A Rajuk source acknowledged that the five ponds proposed a quarter of a century ago no longer exist in their original state. Although Rajuk designated the sites, neither the government nor the authority acquired any land to preserve them — with the sole exception of Kalyanpur.
The Kalyanpur retention pond, situated near the embankment at Goidartek in Gabtoli, collects stormwater from Mohammadpur, Adabor, Shyamoli, Kalyanpur, Shewrapara, Kazipara, Mirpur 1 and Dhanmondi before pumps discharge it into the river. Dhaka WASA acquired 53 acres for the reservoir in 2006, yet various structures have encroached upon the land over the subsequent two decades.
At Goran Chatbari, approximately 50 acres earmarked for a retention pond were instead used to rehouse families displaced by the Dhaka Elevated Expressway. Nevertheless, urban planning experts believe this site, along with those in Nasirabad and Uttarkhan, remains salvageable.
Experts note that land prices in these zones have risen for a decade, driven higher by new roads and infrastructure built by the city corporations. This appreciation will only render future land acquisition more expensive.
Architect Iqbal Habib, vice president of the Safety Awareness Foundation and a long-time campaigner for municipal reservoir protection, expressed profound frustration over official inaction. “These reservoirs were encroached upon right before our eyes,” he told Bonik Barta. “We repeatedly warned the government, protested and demonstrated the potential damage, but our warnings were ignored. The government failed to safeguard even the single retention pond it successfully acquired. Few failures are more disheartening than that.”