DT e-Paper 21 March 2017

Death in development
The cost of ‘development’ is dear
Opinion 15
DT
TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 2017
There’s nothing safe about this
• AKM Wahiduzzaman
One of Bangladesh’s
most popular novelists,
the late Humayun
Ahmed, once compared
Bangladeshis to a goldfish for
forgetting things too easily.
Disagreeing with the late
author, and keeping faith in my
fellow countrymen, I believe
that they have not forgotten
what happened in Bahaddarhat,
Chittagong five years ago --
three girders from the infamous
Bahaddarhat flyover claimed at
least 13 lives in November 2012.
The fatal incident was followed
by a series of similar casualties
in Sirajganj, Patuakhali, Pirojpur,
Boalkhali, and, about a few days
ago, in Dhaka’s Malibagh. The
number of deaths caused by such
accidents has crossed the two
dozen mark already.
To understand these deaths,
one does not need to be an expert
analyst or a researcher. Among
the common reasons, lack of
safety measures, awareness, and
experience are the most obvious
ones.
But it needs to be asked: For
a country that is staring “middle
income” status in the eyes, and
can even afford to build one of
the most expensive bridges in the
world, how hard is it to ensure a
little bit of safety for the citizens
while constructing such mega
projects?
Can we chalk it up to political
interventions? It seems the most
obvious candidate, if you ask me.
After the incident at
Bahaddarhat, an influential ruling
party leader from Chittagong
publicly held the treasurer
of Chittagong Awami League
responsible for the loss of life.
It was alleged that, because of
his abuse of power, the treasurer
handed over the construction
work to people of his own choice,
who obviously messed it up quite
badly. Aventually causing the
girders to fall.
After the catastrophe, the
military was called to complete the
unfinished flyover.
Surprisingly, after a chain of
interesting events, the treasurer
was dropped from the charge
sheet placed by the police over
the incident and his term was
extended for two more years in
2015.
Leaders, as the age-old adage
goes, are said to lead by example,
not by orders. The example that
To understand these deaths, one does not need to be an expert analyst
or a researcher. Among the common reasons, lack of safety measures,
awareness, and experience are the most obvious ones
was set by this incident was clear
as a bell: “If you’re on my team,
I’ve got you covered -- don’t worry
if a few people die because of your
negligence.”
To be fair, it’s an attitude that
plagues our “national mentality,”
for want of a better term.
Last year, in June, a bridge
less than a month old collapsed
and caused the death of one in
Pirojpur, and now, similarly, in the
capital, the girder of a flyover that
is yet to even be completed took
the life of a woodcarver.
Political interference, criminal
negligence, lack of willingness to
monitor, high cost per unit, and
the use of low-quality material
were pretty much evident as the
causes of such accidents, in the
past or otherwise, not to mention
instances of infighting between
ruling party men over construction
work, stupid/cheap decisions
such as using bamboo instead of
steel rods for the scaffolding, and
awarding development projects to
party loyalists.
Disconcertingly, according to a
popular Bengali language daily, the
company that is supervising the
construction work of the Malibagh
flyover is allegedly owned by a
state minister.
Awarding these contracts to
partisan developers usually result
in three types of problems, which
have become an open secret to
some extent:
First, they usually lack
experience to build such largescale
structures and care little
about public safety.
Second, after winning the
contract, they secretly transfer
that to some other construction
firm making sure that are able to
pocket some of the funds. These
firms lose a portion of the money
MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU
to those leaders and therefore
try to make the project as cost
effective as possible, which usually
translates to the use of low-quality
equipment and material.
And calling them out on it is
a fool’s errand -- voices raised
against such misconduct are
usually silenced by calling
them “anti-development” or
“regressive,” the expected rhetoric
trotted out by government highups
these days.
It’s easy to brush off
these deaths as simply being
“accidents.” In that case, maybe
we should redefine accidental
deaths to mean deaths caused by
negligence and unaccountability.
It would make these deaths that
much easier to swallow, that’s for
sure. •
AKM Wahiduzzaman is a political
blogger.