The government has ensured 100% safe drinking water for the Dhaka city people, Local Government and Rural Development Minister Md Tajul Islam claimed.
He said this while addressing a seminar on Accelerated Change to Solve Water and Sanitation Crisis at the National Press Club on Monday to celebrate World Water Day.
“We have secured 100% safe water supply in Dhaka, Chittagong and Rajshahi city,” the minister added.
“We have taken some initiatives to provide safe water in Khulna city. Efforts have been made to create a surface water strategy in each divisional city,” the minister added.
Citing an example in favour of increasing the price of water in the Gulshan area, the minister said: “Do you think the holding tax would be similar between Jatrabari and Gulshan? No. So why will the government give subsidies in this case?”
He thinks that the price of water, gas and electricity should be increased in the elite areas and distributed at a lower price in the areas where the poor people live, including the slums.
In the seminar, a keynote paper titled Research and Monitoring Accelerate Integrity and Security of Water and Sanitation Service was presented by Anwar Zahid, director, Ground Water Hydrology, Bangladesh Water Development Board.
Another keynote paper titled Accelerating Change to Achieve SDG6 Bangladesh Costex presented by Professor Dr Tanveer Ahmed.
They said that the installation of more water points in hard to reach and ource-constrainedd areas to meet the requirement of easy accessibility, and reduce inequality.
The speaker also spoke about inequalities in resource allocations. 79% of funds for WASH is allocated to urban areas and only 21% to rural areas.
But the public sector budget should be spent catalytically and strategically, creating incentives for efficient, sustainable service provision and prioritizing reaching the unserved.
They suggested speeding up the existing activities in the country to ensurethe availability and management of water resources and sanitation for all.
