Chittagong Water Supply And Sewerage Authority (Wasa) is hiking water prices from Thursday.
The rate for residential customers will be increased from Tk13.02 to Tk18 per unit.
The commercial rate has been increased from Tk31.82 to Tk37 per unit. The rate for residential customers will be increased 16.28% and 38.25% for the commercial purpose.
This is the second time Chittagong Wasa hiked the water prices this year.
Consumers Association of Bangladesh said that this is not the appropriate time for price hike. They stated that during the price hike of the daily necessities, water price hike will only add misery to the general people.
Chittagong Wasa reported that the rate of water per unit in 2009 was Tk5.41 for residential and Tk15.32 for commercial.
In 2014, the residential water rate was Tk6.90 and commercial water was Tk19.59.
In 2020, the residential water rate was Tk12.40, while commercial water was Tk30.30.
Lastly, in January of 2022, the residential rate was fixed at Tk13 and the commercial rate was set at Tk31.82.
Chittagong Wasa currently has 78,542 residential customer connections and 7,767 commercial connections.
SM Nazer Hossain of Consumers Association of Bangladesh said that increasing water price twice in seven months is irrelevant.
