There will be no scarcity of drinking water in the capital this summer, Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) officials have told the Dhaka Tribune.
Similar promises made in previous years by the state-owned utility have not always been kept.
During the warm season, the capital typically suffers from water shortages and poor water quality.
Shortages of drinking water in different parts of the city in previous summers, reportedly forced residents to purchase bottled water to meet their demand for drinking water.
Residents describe summer water supplies as “foul smelling” and “dirty,” and say the utility company has done little to solve the problem.
Arifa Islam, a resident of South Shewrapara, said: “We faced a severe crisis in March last year because the water supplied by Wasa smelled awful. We did not drink, bathe or cook with the filthy water it supplied.”
“There has not been a problem, so far, this year,” she added.
Shukrabad resident Shafayet Hossain said in his neighbourhood last year, people could not get fresh water from Wasa pipes because the water was contaminated.
High-ups in the water and sewerage utility said pipelines had been checked this year in most areas of the capital, and said the company was on standby to troubleshoot any problems.
Dhaka Wasa Managing Director Taqsem A Khan told the Dhaka Tribune that Wasa would continue to supply the city with water from its treatment plants.
He denied that there was any trouble with Dhaka’s water supply.
But several Wasa officials, who asked not to be named, told the Dhaka Tribune that falling groundwater levels had repeatedly caused Wasa to fail to provide adequate supplies of water during the dry season.
They said the utility company was increasingly seeking to tap surface water resources.
The officials claimed that the quality of water at Wasa’s treatment plants was unlikely to improve before the monsoon because the Buriganga and Shitalakkhya rivers were highly polluted.
In order to develop environmentally sustainable water supplies for Dhaka, Wasa intends to produce 500 million litres of water per day from the Meghna River at Bishnandi Point in Araihajar upazila, Narayanganj.
Tapping water from the Meghna River will help Dhaka Wasa source 70% of its supply by 2021 from surface water sources, officials said.
It will also halt the depletion of ground water levels which have been severely diminished in recent years.
Dhaka Wasa currently has the capacity to produce 2.25 billion litres of water per day. Dhaka city residents require 2.2 billion litres per day, officials said.