Photo shows a water treatment plant at Hatirbagan in Narail district town that has remained idle for a long time — FE Photo NARAIL, Feb 12: The water treatment plant that was set up in the district town five years ago has been lying inoperative for a long time, depriving local people of pure drinking water.
Official sources said the water treatment plant having capacity of 350 cubic metres was installed at a cost of Tk 90 million to meet a growing demand for pure water.
Municipal authorities, however, said it is not possible to restart the water plant due to a technical problem.
The sources said the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) started to install the water plant at Hatirbagan in Narail town in 2014.
On the completion of the construction work on the water plant project, the DPHE authorities formally handed it over to the municipal management in 2019.
During the operation of only three months, a mechanical problem took place in the water plant.
The inhabitants of the Narail Municipality are using and drinking unrefined water a long time.
Sheikh Aminuzzaman, a resident of the Narail municipality, said the municipality's supply water is not safe and causes waterborne diseases.
"I fell ill for drinking the supply water and was admitted to hospital for a week," he said.
Mahbubur Rahman, another resident, said, "Despite paying the municipal water bill (Tk 300) every month, I have to buy pure water from outside that costs Tk 500 to 600 a month."
"To solve the technical problem, we've requested the municipal authorities to take proper action to restart the water plant."
MM Abu Saleh, executive engineer at the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) in Narail, said, "After the construction of the water treatment plant, we handed over it to the municipal authorities. The plant needs regular maintenance to keep running."
Narail Municipal Mayor Anjuman Ara said the water treatment plant has been was lying idle during the tenure of the then mayor. It was not possible to start it again due to a technical problem.
"I operated the water treatment plant, but it went inoperative again after a few days of operation," she said.
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