Sufferings of the city dwellers deepened in the capital for lack of adequate water supply by the Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority (Dwasa) amid frequent power cuts and the sweltering summer heat.
People living in Badda, Rampura, Sabujbagh, Basabo, Khilgaon, Gulbagh, Rajarbagh, Malibagh, Mowchak, Moghbazar, New Eskaton Road, Elephand Road, Mohammadpur, Shyamoli, Dhanmondi, Uttar Adabar, Indira Road, Monipuripara, Gopibagh, Nowabpur, Hazaribagh and some others parts of old Dhaka are facing acute water crisis in this summer.
“We’ve not got a single drop of water over the last three days, making our lives miserable,” Jubair Hasan, a resident of New Eskaton Road, told UNB.
Describing his sufferings, he said he could not take bath for three days for lack of supply of Dwasa water. “At last, I went to a friend’s house for taking a bath and get some sort of relief from the persisting heat wave.”
Narrating similar experience, Tabarul Haque, a resident of Bara Moghbazar, said he has been moving from one house of friend to another as there is no water supply in his residence for the last couple of days.
Dwasa is currently capable of producing 242 crore litres of water per day against the usual demand of 220-225 crore litres. But, according to recent report submitted to the Local Government Ministry, Dwasa is producing about 229 crore litres due to power shortfall against the current demand of 249 crore litres.
The Dwasa produces 78 percent of its water from ground water source through pumping. A total of 234 out of 670 deep tubewells of Dwasa remain inoperative frequently due to power cuts.
The report says the tubewells often stop their operation due to low voltage, high voltage of electricity and loadshedding.
When contacted, SDM Quamrul Alam Chowdhury, Dwasa deputy managing director said that Dwasa is facing problems to supply water to city dwellers as the demand has increased in the city and groundwater level declined in the summer.
“Production of water has declined, but the demand of water is growing in the persisting heat of summer,” he said.
Apart from inadequate water supply, Dwasa is supplying poor quality and sticky water, allegedly spreading waterborne diseases in the city.
The residents of different parts of the Dhaka city — Moghbazar, Malibagh, Basabo, Khilgaon, Rampura and old part of Dhaka — have been complaining that Dwasa is supplying poor quality water with bad odour during this dry session.
They alleged that Dwasa is currently supplying very poor quality of water, which is unusable even for shower, let alone drinking.
Shafiqul Islam, a resident of Moghbazar, said Dwasa is supplying contaminated water, which is not safe for drinking. “Now we’ve to depend on bottled water, which is pinching our pockets.”
Suraiya Akhter Rima, another resident of old Dhaka, said the poor quality of Dwasa water could not be drunk due to bad smell even if it is boiled. “Many people in old Dhaka are suffering from waterborne diseases like diarrhoea after drinking Dwasa water,” she alleged.
According to icddr,b data, a total of 786 patients were admitted to the iccddr,b Dhaka hospital on Wednesday falling sick from water-bone diseases while 467 patients have been admitted till 4 pm on Thursday.
However, the Dwasa officials turned down the allegation of supplying poor quality of water by Dwasa.
Dwasa deputy managing director Quamrul Alam Chowdhury said the Dwasa water that comes from underground source is safe to drink, but the water is contaminated during supply through pipeline.
He said more chlorine is being used to treat the water which comes from surface water sources as the river water is highly polluted, but the water is safe.
Dwasa managing director Taqsem A Khan earlier claimed that the quality of Dwasa water is absolutely fine. “The water is being supplied ensuring the parameter of World Health Organisation (WHO),” he said.
A Dwasa official, wishing anonymity, said Dwasa is facing difficulty to supply adequate water to the city dwellers during the dry season due to falling groundwater level in the capital.
He said the quality of the water from Dwasa treatment plants was unlikely to improve before monsoon, as the water of Buriganga and Shitalakkhya are highly contaminated.
Source: UNB Connect
Do you know any people/nation that always frantically try to commit suicide? No? Then watch us Bangalis. We city dwellers don’t care to keep our environs neat and clean. We are so sluggish and inconsiderate that we never think a little bit why we fill all the drains, gutter, pits and water bodies with all kinds of filth and garbage. We don’t care a fig to throw all kinds of garbage – kitchen or whatever into the drains by our own homes and hearths. And when water clogs, flooding our homesteads with stinking dirty ooze, we wail and cry. We complacently watch our drains, canals, rivers and other water-bodies being silted up by unscrupulous people, we don’t bother. Thus all the four rivers surrounding our beloved city have become dirty drains filled with filth and garbage. If one day underground water becomes scarce, where shall we go and what shall we do? Nothing, except wail, lament and then cry but almost in wilderness. There should have been a war, yes, a war against this inhuman insensible pollution and filling all kinds of water-bodies with filth and dirt. But no. We have become followers of Ramkrishna Paramhansa. So what to do except surrender to providence/fate?