The No. 9 house on road No. 23 in posh Banani residential area of Dhaka city is now empty and abandoned since a fire originating from a leaked gas pipe belonging to the Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited damaged a large part of the house Thursday night. At least 19 of the inmates were injured and one received burn injuries.
The inmates of the house are suffering because of an accident that could be easily prevented had the Titas responded to the complaints made repeatedly by the former in time. According to the families living in that house, an underground gas pipe got leaked during the digging of a road in front of the house a few days back by a utility service provider. They had contacted the Titas repeatedly, but nothing was done to plug the leak. Gas, it is suspected, sneaked into the sewerage line and climbed up to the top floor of the five-storey building.
The indifference that the Titas has shown in the case of the accident in Banani house is nothing unique. This is more of a pattern of behaviour on the part of the most utility service providers and other government-owned agencies from which the common people are required to seek services from time to time.
If the problem concerns an individual, he or she tries to 'manage' the relevant officials/employees of the utility service provider/ agency to get the same fixed. This could involve palm-greasing. But when the problem does involve a residential area or a community, getting the same addressed by the relevant agencies turns out to be a Herculean task since it is nobody's baby.
In most cases, the residents are found bearing with the problems involving roads or drainage system or utility supplies for days or months together. They will grumble always but would not take initiative at the individual level to get the problem/s resolved. The role of the officials and employees of utility service providers, city corporations, WASA does not need any elaboration. They, in most cases, are found indifferent to civic problems. The response to such problems is always belated.
It is often seen that water is being wasted through leaked underground supply lines for months together. Unless directed none from WASA would volunteer to repair the leak. This is also true in the case of Titas gas. Following the accident at Banani, a private TV channel showed how dangerously gas was coming out through a leaked supply line along a road in a residential area. Despite being informed by the local residents, the Titas, allegedly, has not made any move to repair the leak. There are hundreds of instances that only highlight the apathy of the public sector agencies towards doing their regular jobs and addressing the grievances of the common men.
If not others, the media in particular have been very helpful in drawing the attention of the agencies concerned to the problems faced by residents and communities. However, the media's role is very limited in this particular area since it cannot force the agencies to initiate the corrective measures. It is expected that men in charge of these agencies would ask their subordinates to look into the problems that are from time to time highlighted by the media. But that is hardly done.
Problems that the residents of Dhaka have been facing are extensive because of the fact that the city has grown and expanded over time in an unplanned manner. Coordination is an issue, seemingly, most abhorred by the agencies involved with the development of the city. They have always chosen their own way of doing jobs.
That is why a road paved afresh by the city corporation is being dug by another government agency for laying cables or anything else. The agency concerned prior to digging the road is required to deposit funds with the same city corporation for repair work. The corporation receives the money but does not repair the road for months together. Major roads are repaired after a gap of weeks or months, but internal roads are hardly touched. The city corporation should not, in the first place, allow any agency to cut or dig a freshly paved road.
The issue concerning lack of coordination among various agencies involved with the development of Dhaka city has surfaced time and again. But no answer has been found until now. However, coordination alone is unlikely to fully address the plight of the Dhaka residents. The willingness of the agencies concerned to resolve the problems facing the Dhakites appears to be the moot issue here.
zahidmar10@gmail.com
Apathy of utility service providers
Shamsul Huq Zahid | Published: March 21, 2016 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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