Complaints of mismanagement and negligence against the Khulna Wasa authorities have been on the rise for a long time, even though thousands of crores of taka are spent on improving the water supply.
Residents say they are dismayed since the authorities have failed to provide clean water regularly to all their 40,000 clients with legal connections and low-income people living in the 53 slums of the city.
The authorities have increased the price of water by 28% -- from Tk6 to Tk8.98. They have also implemented a mega project, worth around Tk2,500 crore, to bring water from the Madhumati River.
Even so, the poorer section of the population remains deprived of the facility because there is no connection to the slum areas of the city. During the dry seasons, marginal people have been facing acute water problems for the last 8-10 years.
However, the Wasa authorities say they recently gave 1,000 connections in the slums of the New Market area.
The city's population is around 700,000 according to the 2021 census, while it is over 1,500,000 as claimed by the city corporation.
Their demands include ensuring house-to-house water connections in slum areas, setting up adequate community taps in slum areas, and providing adequate supplies of water according to demand. They also called for setting up water ATM booths, making water connection and service charges bearable for marginalized families, creating water management committees at ward level, and strengthening monitoring with the participation of citizens' bodies.
Mina Azizur Rahman, president of CSO Network Khulna -- a non-governmental organization working on water supply in the city, said that there is an acute shortage of drinking water in areas where low-income people live in the Khulna metropolis.
“Wasa has implemented a mega project at a cost of around Tk2,500 crore to change the situation. Through the project, water is brought from the Madhumati River, treated and supplied. But due to a lack of legal connections, low-income groups are deprived of water.
“Besides, there is not enough water in the deep tubewells in different slum areas of the city. The lower and middle-class people are in dire straits,” Aziz told Dhaka Tribune.
The Khulna district unit President of Shuboshakti Network, Jharna Akhter Brishti, said that Wasa had increased the price of water again, this time by 28%. But there is no adequate supply of water. As such, the authorities are harassing customers by increasing the price of water and sending them exorbitant bills.”
M Nazmul Azam David, executive director of Paribartan Khulna, said that the water supplied by Wasa is smelly and dirty. “Wasa did not take any action despite receiving complaints about it from different areas.”
Mohammad Ali, Ward No 5 councillor of the KCC, said: “I demanded water distribution urgently to reduce the sufferings of marginalized people during the month of Ramadan this year. But Wasa did not respond. Wasa seems to have turned into a business-heavy administration.”
Shushamaj Network Khulna President Sharif Shakeel Bin Alam said that civil society organizations had been campaigning to demand a regular supply of safe water. “Several meetings and discussions have also been held with Wasa, but I have not seen their sincerity and action yet. It is important to implement the existing laws to manage water among the marginalized communities properly.”
Wasa defends itself
Asked about these issues, Wasa Managing Director Md M Abdullah claimed: “The price of water has been kept at a tolerable level for customers, and the average customer bill has not increased much.”
Regarding connections to slum areas, he said Wasa had not been able to cover all the slums due to various administrative complications. “For example, we could not supply water to the railway slum owing to not getting permission from the authorities concerned. Besides, connections are not being provided to the houses in slum areas that do not have holding numbers from the city corporation.”
The railway slum houses some 1,500 families.
Regarding ghost bills, Md Abdullah said that Wasa had been issuing bills as per meter readings. “Sometimes water pipes are damaged due to road digging by various organizations, including the city corporation and telephone service providers, and the supplied water is polluted.”
He added that Wasa took measures to reduce pollution after it received complaints.
