A landslide, one year on - landslides in Bangladesh

A landslide, one year on


Faizul Khan Tanim visits the site of the landslide disasters in Chittagong last year, where human habitation has once again developed, and finds out why little has been done to avoid another impending disaster


photo by Momena Jalil

It has been one year since that horrifying night on June 11, when in Chittagong, torrential rains for over 24 hours triggered a series of landslides burying hillside localities and claiming at least 127 lives.

Most of the victims were asleep when large chunks of earth rolled down the hillocks and buried thatched and mud houses near Chittagong cantonment. The rest were killed in Pahartali, Devarpar, Kusumbag, Nasirabad and Chittagong university areas.

At the time, environmental experts, city planners and concerned authorities of the government pointed to relentless cutting of hills as the major reason behind landslides adding that 22 of the city canals were either filled up or encroached, which caused the unprecedented water logging.

They also termed the debacle a signal of further catastrophes and stressed the need for taking stern measures to put an end to hill cutting immediately.

But, most importantly, the occupants of the hillside localities had to be relocated immediately, to avoid any further danger, the experts said then.

As a year completes, not only have new houses been built on site of disaster, many of the old inhabitants still remain, some say, the actual number of inhabitants have increased.

‘Here, at the foot of the hills, it is a very nominal charge we pay,’ says 40-year-old Amena Begum. She reasons her incapability to move inside the city by pointing out the higher living expenditure.

Erecting thatched houses has become more expensive now because of the price hike of raw materials like corrugated sheets, bamboo and others, she says.

‘Most of us here are from Barisal and we came to this place during the era of late President Ziaur Rahman after the hungry rivers consumed all our homes and land,’ says Liton, a rickshaw-puller. ‘And the only reason we want to live here is that we have nowhere else to go which would be cheaper than here’.

Almost all residents of Kaichhaghona and Lebubagan, the two worst affected areas near Chittagong cantonment, inform that according to a government order published on national newspapers, they have been asked to vacate the places they are living in presently due to the areas’ nature of being prone to disaster.

‘Where do we go?’ ask the residents equally distressed by the vulnerability.

The inhabitants, meanwhile, relive the shocking memories everyday and live through anguished fear of another disaster, every time it rains.

‘We are so terrified now than even if it rains the slightest, we start packing and sit by the doors so that at least we can run for our lives,’ says Shirina Akhter, 25.

Parveen Begum, 27, lost all three of her daughters – Sharmin, Shahinur, Shahida and mother-in-law Zakiya Khatun, to the grisly landslide accident.

‘It was continuously raining for two to three days at a stretch and on the early morning of June 11, when most of us were asleep, large chunks of earth rolled down the hillocks and buried our thatched houses.’

‘I escaped from death by getting outside. I saw eight houses around me, at the foot of the hill, getting buried early in the morning. And as much as I know, an old lady is still buried under the debris’, Parveen added by pointing to a nearby pit, hunching that if properly dug, they might recover the old lady’s skeleton.

‘The soil on these hills are mostly sand and the surface of the hillocks easily wash away during heavy rains. It is literally impossible to move during nighttime when it rains, as the paths become extremely slippery,’ says Liton.

URING the few days after the disaster, the media and experts went hard on government officials. Who had given permission for these hills to be cut? Who had given permission for these people to live in these dangerous places?

There was also a lot of talk about rehabilitating these people, bringing the culprits to justice, and bringing an end to hill cutting.

One year on, none of that seems to have gone through.

‘Landslides mainly occurs due to two reasons —tectonic plate movement which can form uplifted mountains and earthquakes and secondly, man-made cause of tree felling and hill cutting,’ says Prof Nurul Islam Nazem of the Centre for Urban Studies.

‘There is a specific way to cut hills for human habitation but that was certainly not followed,’ he says.

‘We should not cut the hills at all. There is no need to cut the hills and make the landscapes flat (which is a common practice in this country) and then construct houses. Instead, houses can be made at the base or slopes of the hills as is done in many European countries’, adds Nazem.

‘Geologically, the hills are from a recent age,’ says Dr Amanat Ullah Khan, professor of the department of Geography and Environment, University of Dhaka.

‘This means that the soil structure did not solidify or consolidate properly and continuous rain will therefore always cause landslides,’ he says.

‘Human habitation started in these hillocks before they could mature. If you see closely, there is no rock formation yet and therefore clearly unfit for human habitation’.

‘There should be a governing body comprised of geologists, soil scientists, geographers, urban planners, and more, who would study soil structure of the hills and based on their research, permit residential zoning. According to the present condition of soil composition in those hillocks, habitation should not be allowed as it is very risky,’ Amanat added.

According to Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) and Department of Environment (DoE), Chittagong Division, there is an authorisation committee in Chittagong, pahar korton o ba mochon committee, who can only suggest or propose hill cutting when any particular person or organisation applies, but the final decision always rests at the hands of the Housing and Public Works Department (PWD), Dhaka.

Ashraful Islam, member secretary of CDA, however claims that the soil component of those hillocks are mainly sand, which is why the disaster occurred in torrential rainfall.

‘There is no fault in the cutting method of the hills because first and foremost, the soil structure is so loose that heavy rains will definitely wash away the surface’.

Nazmul Hoque, director of DoE Chittagong Division further that they have stopped permitting hill cutting for the last one year. ‘The disaster was a natural calamity due to heavy rainfall and water stagnancy,’ he says.

‘Almost fifty to sixty thousand people are leading vulnerable lives at the bottom of those hillocks,’ says divisional commissioner of Chittagong, Hussain Jamil.

‘We are looking at a railway land near Jaan Ali Haat railway station and proposed to the government to acquire that five to six acres land to rehabilitate some of the people from the affected areas’.

That land may however not be sufficient to rehabilitate all the people.

‘It depends on whether building is vertical or horizontal, which would tell us how many people we can accommodate,’ says Jamil.

‘We can start working as soon as the government gives us the green signal. But from the looks of it right now, the area is definitely not sufficient to rehabilitate all the affected people’.

Jamil however apprehends that rehabilitation may not be a permanent solution.

‘Once we vacate the affected areas, a new set of people will come and start living. The main task will have to be to keep those risky areas out of human habitation and that vigilance is continuous,’ Jamil added.

As frequent landslides take place in Chittagong almost every monsoon, the human casualties last year have raised strong demands by the city-dwellers for stern measures to stop the cutting of hills.

They say indiscriminate hill cutting by developers, brick kiln owners and construction of unauthorized structures on the hill slopes were responsible for this disaster and should be immediately stopped.

*this article was first published in Daily NewAge Xtra Magazine June 20