Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) plans to spend Tk 10.52 billion on installing 62 new deep tube wells and rehabilitating 728 existing ones, aiming to extract an additional 576 million litres of water per day (MLD) from ground sources to meet the rising demand.
The plan is part of a project titled "Emergency Water Supply in Dhaka City".
The planning commission and independent experts have criticised the project, which includes activities that contradict DWASA's master plan to increase the share of surface water to 70 per cent of the total supply by 2021 from 20 per cent in 2011.
The Physical Infrastructure Division of the planning commission recently arranged a meeting of the Project Evaluation Committee (PEC), which returned the project proposal earlier sent by the Local Government Division (LGD) to the planning ministry.
In the proposal, the implementation time frame is between January 2025 and July 2029, said officials of the ministry.
Kabir Ahamed, chief of the Physical Infrastructure Division, told The Financial Express the meeting had sent back the proposal with some recommendations aiming to reduce the costs of some components.
He said the meeting also emphasised ensuring progress for the existing DWASA projects that aim to supply surface water to Dhaka and urged the authorities concerned to protect the rivers surrounding the capital in order to maintain water supply costs at justified levels.
Experts say the project is harmful to the capital's ecosystem, adding DWASA initiated it to mask the failure to advance Tk 331.36 billion investments in surface water supply initiatives.
AKM Saiful Islam, a professor at the Institute of Water and Flood Management at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), said groundwater extraction must be reduced to zero as projections indicate over 70 per cent of the country's population will reside in urban areas by 2041.
He highlighted the alarming decline in groundwater levels caused by excessive extraction, noting that rainwater during the monsoon is unable to replenish aquifers due to the decreasing number of nearby waterbodies.
This, in turn, is exacerbating environmental degradation, said Islam.
In light of the challenges, the professor urged the authorities to expedite the ongoing river water treatment projects rather than approve new groundwater extraction initiatives.
Ecologist Mohammad Azaz pointed out that groundwater levels in many towns are falling despite abundant surface water reserves.
He said relying on deep tube well projects for groundwater extraction is unsustainable and harmful to the ecology.
LGD and DWASA officials told the PEC meeting several projects are being implemented to reduce the reliance on groundwater.
To bridge the gap and maintain adequate water supply until the projects are operational, the proposed project would be an interim solution to meet the city's growing demand for water, they explained.
Planning commission officials said DWASA in July 2015 initiated the Sayedabad Water Treatment Plant (Phase-3) project to supply 950 MLD of water from the Meghna River through the Haria pumping station.
At an estimated cost of Tk 45.97 billion, the project was supposed to be finished by June 2020. But the deadline was extended to June 2025, while the cost was revised to Tk 75.18 billion. However, only Tk 1.62 billion has so far been spent.
The Dhaka Environmentally Sustainable Water Supply project to extract 500 MLD of water from the Meghna River was supposed to be finished in 2019, but the deadline was extended to June 2025. The delay resulted in an additional cost of Tk 28.99 billion.
Experts say the delay in implementing the projects not only pushed up costs but also forced the government to spend a significant amount of money on securing water from ground sources in the absence of surface water supply.
DWASA has a project portfolio of Tk 331.36 billion to increase surface water supply. The funding includes Tk 128.66 billion from the government exchequer, Tk 0.52 billion from DWASA's own fund, and Tk 202.17 billion from foreign sources.
The projects' implementation would help supply 2,850 MLD of surface water, which would increase the share of such water to over 70 per cent from the current 32 per cent.
In June last year, DWASA completed the Emergency Water Supply project at an estimated cost of Tk 7.32 billion to supply an additional 623 MLD of water from ground sources.
In 2019, it also finished the Construction of Well Field in Tetuljhara-Bhakurta Area of Savar Upazila project at a cost of Tk 5.33 billion to supply 150 MLD of groundwater from Savar. Also, in 2017, it implemented a project at a cost of Tk 6.12 billion to supply 900 MLD of water.
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