Ensuring safe water supply to Rajshahi dwellers stressed

RAJSHAHI, Apr 26 (BSS): Speakers at a discussion here today unequivocally called for ensuring safe water from source to all consumers for the sake of protecting the city dwellers especially the poor and extreme poor ones from various waterborne diseases.

They noted that the authorities concerned should work together in this regard as safe water is the fundamental rights of the people irrespective of caste and creed.

The observations came at a sharing workshop styled "Rajshahi City Water Supply Plan: Baseline Survey and System Assessment" held at conference hall of Rajshahi Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Rajshahi city.

Rajshahi Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (RWASA) and Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) jointly organised the workshop in association with World Health Organisation and Sachetan.

With Managing Director of RWASA Dhirendra Nath Sarker in the chair, Deputy Managing Director Dr Shah Alam, Pro-VC of Rajshahi University Prof Dr Chowdhury Sarwar Jahan, Dean of Civil Engineering Faculty of RUET Prof Dr Iqbal Matin and Executive Engineer of DPHE Khan Golam Rabbani spoke as special guests.

Programme Director of Water Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) Anita Leden, National Consultant of Water Sanitation and Hygiene Alauddin Ahmed, Country Prgramme Manager of WSUP Abdus Saheen, Executive Director of Sachetan Hasinul Islam Chunnu and its Project Coordinator Sarker Helaluzzaman Liton also spoke.

During his keynote presentation on WSP Improvement Plan, Parvez Mahmud, Superintending Engineer of RWASA, gave an overview of the city's water supply management while WSP Specialist Anis Sarker, in his PowerPoint presentation on Establishing Water Supply Safety Plan for Rajshahi WASA, narrated the aspects of the project plan and its ongoing grassroots level activities.