The perennial water crisis is likely to ease in the premier port city Chittagong with the launching of the much-awaited Karnaphuli Water Supply Project.
Managing Director of Chittagong Wasa Engineer AKM Fazlullah made the announcement while addressing a press conference held at Karnaphuli Water Treatment Plant at Rangunia upazila of Chittagong yesterday morning.
However, the age-old rundown supply lines cannot withstand the huge pressure of the increased supply of water. Therefore, the supply lines are developing leakages frequently.
Admitting the leakage in the supply line, Fazlullah said, “The leakage repairing task has now emerged to be a challenge for us. We have so far repaired 400 leakages from November 1. We have information that more 300 leakages have developed in different parts of the city.”
“We are now renovating and replacing the 50-year old asbestos and PVC pipelines with High-Density Polyethylene and ductile iron pipes which could supply water for 80-100 years,” added the MD of the Wasa.
“Wasa can now supply only 210 millions litres of water daily (which is only 42% of the total demand) against the daily demand of 500 million liter of water. The mega project will bridge the huge deficit between supply and demand,” said the MD of the CWasa
AKM Fazlullah also bemoaned the fact that Wasa could not undertake any project after 1987 and with the launching of the mega project, the city dwellers would get more 143 million litres of water (MLD) per day which will cover about 70 percent of the total demand of water.
Mentionable that Chittagong Wasa launched the much-hyped project in March 2006.
However, the project could not see the light of the day mainly due to tangles related to land acquisition.
AKM Fazlullah also dropped a hint at the press briefing that they were going to increase water tariff soon to recoup huge loss for supplying water to the city dwellers.
Underscoring the importance of saving the two major rivers f Chittagong- the Halda and the Karnaphuli- from pollution, Fazlullah said, “Wasa is heavily dependent on the Halda and the Karnaphuli. If the rivers are polluted with industrial and human waste, it will turn out to be a great danger for us.”
The CWASA has a total of 61,717 domestic connections, and 7,387 commercial and industrial connections.
