The Dasherkandi sewage treatment plan was introduced to treat the waters of the Hatirjheel-Begunbari canal, but work on the plant is being delayed due to a fund shortage.
Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) has already received $76m from the World Bank to improve the city’s water supply and sewerage management with the possibility of an additional $200-300m for the development of the sector, if the money was spent properly so it makes no sense that this project is reported to be at a standstill.
Work was scheduled to begin in January 2011 with completion this December but officials are blaming a funding shortage for a lack of progress on implementing a plant to treat the tannery waste-infested water of the Hatirjheel-Begunbari canal before it flows into the Buriganga.
This is unacceptable. Clean water is indispensable to our daily lives and the pollution of canals and rivers which is plain for all to see, also puts the lives of the residents of Hazaribagh at jeopardy, since it is used daily for cooking, cleaning, drinking, and bathing.
Modern water treatment plants are vital to WASA’s duty of keeping the water supply clean. It is not good enough to pass the blame for not building and opening new plants more onto funding delays. Such hold ups should not occur and obstacles should be foreseen better in the planning process.
Government has a duty to ensure funding to clean the water on which so many people depend. There is no reasonable excuse to delay improvements to WASA’s capacity to treat and clean the city’s polluted rivers and waters.