City dwellers face acute water crisis

The Dhaka city dwellers of different areas have been facing acute crisis of water for the last couple of weeks due to the shortage of water supply in the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA) lines.

The people of Lalbagh, Kamalbagh, Islambagh, Nawabpur, Khilgaon, Mirpur, Hajaribagh, some parts of Mirpur and Mohammadpur, central Badda, Shewrapara, Paikpara, Kalabagan, Nayapaltan, Khilgaon, some parts of Moghbazar and Basabo alleged that they were acutely facing water crisis in their areas for the last couple of weeks.

The WASA can supply between 155 crore litres and 160 crore litres of water a day against the demand of over 200 crore litres, said an official of the WASA.

The consumers get much lower than the WASA production due to cracks in the WASA supply lines at different points, he added.

Frequent power outage also hampers smooth operation of the pumps ultimately disrupting the lifting of water, he also said.

People of different areas alleged that they had been facing water crisis for long and it had intensified for the last couple of weeks forcing them to depend on mosques and some other sources like tube-wells.

Many of them also alleged that the water they were getting from the WASA supply lines were dirty, discoloured and stink.

Md Hasan, a resident of old Dhaka, said, “We have been facing water crisis for the last three months and it has been intensified for the last two weeks.”

“We have to stay awake till midnight every night to collect water as we get some water in the WASA supply lines that time,’ said Hafiza, a resident of Basabo.

Another resident of Kalabagan said that most of the days he could not take his bath due to water crisis. “The water supply situation in the area has reached a vulnerable state and the little amount water we get is not enough even for emergency works like cooking and drinking.”

Hafiz Kamal, a resident of central Badda, said due to the poor supply of water, they had to depend on even dirty and stinking water to do their emergency works.

“Excessive dependence on the groundwater level has caused its drop at an alarming level and it is one of the main reasons of reducing water supply of WASA,” said an official of the WASA.

About 85 per cent of the WASA water comes from the underground source of water till now while the remaining 15 per cent from surface water sources. The WASA presently has 454 deep tube-wells and four surface water treatment plants, he also said.

“The Phase-II of Sayedabad Water Treatment Plant and Khilkhet Water Treatment Plant with the capacity of 22.50 crore litres of water and 50 crore litres of water a day will not come into light before five to seven years. The plants would be able to meet the demand of water of the city dwellers till 2020,” he added.

If everything goes smoothly, the phase II of the Sayedabad plant will take four to five years and Khilkhet plant about 7 years to be completed since the beginning of its work, said another official of the WASA.