The Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) has signed an agreement recently with a South Korean company to implement a project at Savar for producing 150 million litres of water per day. The proposed project, to be implemented at a cost of Taka 5.21 billion, aims at resolving water crisis in Dhaka city permanently by 2021.
The Korean firm, according to a report published in this newspaper on September 26 last, will meet 70 per cent of the total project cost and the rest will come from the public exchequer and DWASA. The project is likely to be completed by June, 2016. The Managing Director (MD) of DWASA announced at the contract signing ceremony, as appeared in the FE, that the DWASA "is engaged in developing an environment-friendly and sustainable water management system".
The most important aspect of the DWASA plan is to achieve 70% of its total production from surface water sources by 2019. At present, only 22% of water is produced by tapping surface water, the DWASA MD told reporters. The DWASA is currently producing 2.42 billion litres of water against the demand for 2.30 billion litres per day for the city dwellers.
Though the water production, as per DWASA statistics, exceeds the total demand, the residents in a large number of city areas continue to suffer from water crisis, particularly in dry season. This reflects lack of proper management in distribution of water in the city. Despite measures so far taken by the DWASA, a permanent solution to water crisis still remains a far cry.
During the summer season this year we found inhabitants in different parts of the capital passing sleepless nights for procuring a bucketful of water for each family. The situation is so acute that the residents have to wait round the clock for getting supply of water. In some parts, water supply remains suspended for days. The WASA authority blames falling ground water level and technical problems in some pumps for shortage of water supply. The WASA authority had assured the consumers time and again that there was no shortage of water as the production was higher than the daily demand.
It may be mentioned that in April this year the government also signed a $250 million loan agreement with Asian Development Bank (ADB) to set up a treatment plant to tap surface water for Dhaka city. The water supply plant will cost about $675 million.
According to Dhaka WASA, the concessional financial assistance of ADB will help expand water supply and improve its quality. The treatment plant will draw water from the Meghna river, about 22 kilometres east of Dhaka city. The proposed treatment plant will be able to treat 500 million litres of water daily. In the process, the extraction of groundwater is expected to be reduced by 150 million litres per day.
The Country Director of ADB who signed the loan agreement on behalf of the Manila-based multilateral body on April 24 last, observed that Dhaka needs more water for its increasing population and this financial assistance will help the city water authority bring about improvement in water supply.
Tapping the new water source, in turn, will go a long way in conserving vital groundwater, the ADB Country Director further observed. Moreover the ADB-aided sustainable water supply project envisages setting up of community-based organisations in order to help poor people get water supply through legal connections at reasonable cost.
The rivers around Dhaka city which could provide surface water to the city dwellers are now heavily polluted and, therefore, remains beyond treatment. The rivers -- Buriganga, Turag, Balu and Shitalakhya -- are in the grip of land grabbers who find it convenient to develop housing schemes by filling those.
Joint secretary of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon architect Iqbal Habib said recently that the government has allowed a large housing project on flood flow zone in Rupganj of Narayanganj district. The rivers -- Balu and Shitalakhya --flowing there could be used as sources of surface water.
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