The quality of water supplied by Water and Sewerage Authority is unlikely to improve before monsoon due to lack of steps taken by authorities concerned.
According to experts, though the Wasa has taken various steps to solve water crisis in the capital, the city people are deprived of pure drinking water due to lack of collecting surface water and its treatment process.
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology Professor Md Mujibur Rahman said, “Quality of treatment plant water depends on various facts like sources of surface water, distribution and reservation of water by the Wasa.”
“The water of the Buriganga,Shitalakkhya and Balu rivers is highly polluted and a huge amount of chemical has to be used to treat the water, causing a bad smell. So it is not possible to get pure water for the people,” he said.
People living in different areas in Taltola, Shamim Sharani, Shewrapara, Agargaon, Kazipara, Ibrahimpur, Farmgate, Rajabazar, Tejkunipara, Tejturi Bazar, Shyamoli, Mohammadpur, and Kalyanpur complained that they were getting malodorous water, unsuitable for human consumption.
They alleged that Wasa has been supplying very poor quality of water, which is unusable even for shower, let alone drinking. Water crisis in Dhaka city during summer is very common as its demand goes up during the period.
Nasima Khatun, a resident of Taltala area, said: “The Wasa has been supplying contaminated, stinking water and we sometimes find black substances in it.”
“We cannot drink, take a bath or cook using the filthy water,” she said.
Sajib Kibria, a resident of Hazipara adjoining Rampura, said: “People in and around the area cannot get fresh and odour-free water from the Wasa, as pipes get contaminated.”
“Many residents in the area are purchasing bottled water because of the bad smell and dirt in Wasa’s water,” he added.
Water expert and eminent environmentalist Dr Ainun Nishat told the Dhaka Tribune: “The Dhaka Wasa is not completely careful about its water supplying system, and as a result the city dwellers continue to face trouble using Wasa water.”
Dr Ainun Nishat, also vice chancellor of BRAC University, claimed that rich countries like England and United States of America are supplying water into pipe line with a high pressure every day. Even if there is a leakage in the pipeline, it cannot hamper water quality due to the high pressure.
Dhaka Wasa Managing Director Taqsem A Khan, however, denied the allegation on the poor quality of Wasa water.
“We have received objections from few areas. But there is no problem in Wasa’s treatment plant water; its quality is hundred percent pure and equivalent to World Health Organisation (WHO) standards,” he said.
Taqsem said they were investigating specific areas in Wasa MODS Zone 4 and 10, and they found that the problem was in the customers’ reserve tanks.
SDM Kamrul Alam Chowdhury, deputy managing director (additional charge) of operation and maintenance of the Wasa claimed they have started to supply treatment plant water to different areas in Mirpur zone.
“The resident of those areas are not used to drinking the treatment plant water because we had supplied them pump water earlier,” he added.
However, Kamrul said water from the Sayedabad Treatment Plant might have a slight smell because of the presence of chlorine.
He also said the problem might also be caused by leaks in pipelines, with filthy water from open road drains becoming mixed with the water in the pipe through the leaks.
