Editorial
Water crisis in the city
Serious handling of the situation is called for
A severe water crisis has made things go from bad to worse for people in Dhaka. With all the frequent power outages, horrendous traffic jams and the like already complicating life in the city, the shortage of water promises to create new nightmares for everyone. In very large areas of the city, notably Rampura, Kalyanpur, Shekher Tek and Mohammadpur, citizens have been suffering from lack of water for the last four or five days. There are areas where water supply has been in a state of suspension for as many as four days.
There are some very disquieting reasons behind the crisis. The Sayedabad water treatment plant, which in normal circumstances produces 22 crore 50 lakh litres of water has now been reduced to a state where there is a shortfall in the supply of water by as much as 6 crore litres. Earlier this month, the shortage was projected at 3 crore litres. Obviously, there has been a worsening of the situation. Unfortunately, however, no clear steps appear to be in sight for addressing the problem. WASA officials have acknowledged the crisis, but have pointed fingers at the severe power outages as well as low voltage of electricity as being responsible for it. There may be a point here about the state of electricity supply. Only a few days ago, the adviser in charge of power wondered why power outages occurred in the middle of the night when there was hardly any reason for it. But while outages can be cited as a reason for the shortfall in water supply, the fact remains that even without such outages there is always a shortage in water supply by as much as 50 crore litres. Add to that the sizzling weather and the shortfall shoots up to 70 crore litres. This is indication enough that water has been a problem for city dwellers even in normal times and that corrective efforts need to be taken to deal with it.
What confounds the situation at present is that the water crisis has hit people in the Ramadan season. There are some very legitimate fears that the crisis will only acquire darker proportions as Eid approaches. At the same time, there are complaints that personnel responsible for operating WASA water pumps are often found derelict in carrying out their duties. WASA has at present 467 deep tubewells but compared with that figure there are only 263 generators. As for mobile generators, there are only 31 of them. The demand for water in the city is 210 crore litres, which goes up to an additional 30 crore litres when the weather heats up. These are facts that need the serious attention of the authorities. With half the city gasping for water, a sense of urgency must be brought into handling the crisis, especially in this season of Ramadan and Eid.
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