Although Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority has a plan to reduce pressure on groundwater, it continues to install more deep tube wells in the capital, a move that runs counter to the plan.
Wasa has taken a plan to collect 70% of its supply water from surface sources by 2021. Besides, last year, its Managing Director Taqsem A Khan expressed hope that they would be able to reduce pressure on groundwater, with about 78% of water coming from the ground sources and the remaining 22% from the surface sources by the fiscal year 2018-2019.
Nonetheless, the state-run agency continues to increase the number of deep tube wells in the city.
Taqsem, while addressing a press conference yesterday, said Wasa had installed an additional 65 deep tube wells, 26 new ones and 39 replacements, in different areas in the city in this fiscal while the total number of such tube wells in Dhaka city stood at 671.
The conference was arranged at Wasa headquarters and was chaired by Taqsem while other top officials were also present. “Before the start of Ramadan, 10 more deep tube wells, four new ones and six replacements, will be installed. In addition, a total of 405 generators will be there as backup during power outage,” the Wasa managing director said.
He said they would provide legal pipeline water services for all slum dwellers in the capital by 2015 and the largest Karail slum in Banani had already been brought under this service fully. “We have taken the step to avoid system loss and to resolve the water crisis in the slums.”
However, many of the Karail slum dwellers alleged they had faced scarcity of drinking water since Wasa disconnected illegal pipelines without arranging sufficient water for them.
Wasa installed a pump last year with a view to providing legal water lines to slum dwellers. It gave connections to 500 households for meeting the water demand of 16,000 families but the slum dwellers said the connections was not adequate to meet the demand of 78,000 people.
Taqsem yesterday admitted the scarcity and the foul odour found in the water at a few places in the city. “The illegal pipelines often leak, wasting water in some areas.”
“New pipes are being installed and would be completed in two and a half years. Water quality will improve after that and there will be no leakage,” he said.
The Wasa managing director claimed that at present, the system loss of water was 25% which was caused by leakage, worn-out pipes and illegal lines.
“We have been trying to reduce the amount of loss to 15%. Wasa’s success lies in the quantity of water being supplied. We are supplying 2.42bn litres of water against a demand of 2.25bn litres a day,” he said.
Taqsem, however, refused to comment on the existing waterlogging problem in the city that stemmed from the monsoon rain.
