Garbage dumped into Sangbadik Housing canal along Kalshi Road in the city blocking its water flow for long — FE File Photo One single agency should be given the responsibility for maintaining the city's drainage system to ensure its better management, the Dhaka WASA chief said Monday.
"The drainage system of the city is maintained by several agencies at present, but it should go under one authority," Managing Director (MD) of Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) Taqsem A Khan said.
He also said DWASA is taking necessary preparations to address water-logging problem during the monsoon by maintaining various infrastructures like culverts, drains and canals.
"The drainage network (managed by DWASA) is fully in our control, consequently we are hopeful of witnessing less water-logging this year than that of the last year," Mr Khan said.
The DWASA MD made the remarks at a view-exchange meeting at its headquarters in the city to inform journalists of its preparations for uninterrupted water supply this dry season and also during the coming holy month of Ramadan and minimising water-logging problem during the next monsoon.
DWASA Chief Engineer Md Kamrul Hasan along with other top officials were present.
According to sources, the drainage system and rainwater discharge channels from the city belong to Dhaka North and South City Corporations, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk), and Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) in addition to DWASA.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Taqsem said DWASA has already started the activities to reduce water-logging problem during the next rainy season including canals' re-excavation, drainage maintenance, installing temporary pump stations and upgrading permanent ones.
"We are re-digging 30-kilometre canal including Ramchandrapur, Rupnagar, Baunia, Segunbagicha and Manda," he said.
The WASA chief identified scarcity of water bodies, ubiquitous concrete-covering and lack of floodplains around the capital city as three main reasons for water-logging.
"Due to unplanned urbanisation, Dhaka city has turned into an object like cordoned-bucket, which cannot discharge rainwater through its natural channels," he said.
He also said Dhaka city has only two per cent wetlands in its total area, while around 12 per cent is required for timely discharge of rainwater.
Regarding measures taken by the agency to ensure uninterrupted water supply during this dry season and coming Ramadan, Mr Khan said there is no crisis for water in the city, except for some problems in distribution.
Only 2-5 per cent of the city people are facing water crisis, he acknowledged, saying that DWASA has undertaken various projects for using surface water to address the issue.
"By 2021, we shall increase our capacity to use surface water by 70 per cent from only 22 per cent at the moment," he said, adding that there will be no water crisis any time in the year when a major quantity of water will be collected from surface sources like rivers around the city.
DWASA supplies 2.44 billion litres of water against the demand for 2.35 to 2.4 billion litres every day.
"We have adopted modern technologies like District Metered Area (DMA) to reduce system loss to below 10 per cent," he said.
About the preparations during the holy month of Ramadan, he said it would provide drinking water to people during Sehri and Iftar at various points of Dhaka.
The authority would receive complaints from city dwellers through 12 centres which will remain open for 24-hours during the month of Ramadan to take immediate actions accordingly, the WASA MD added.
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
