The capital's water supplier is supplying only 45 million litres of groundwater daily from the much-talked-about Tetuljhora-Bhakurta (phase 1) well field to Mirpur area instead of 150 million litres.
Moreover, the inhabitants of the surrounding areas of the project have been facing severe water crisis as they cannot extract water from their tube-wells and irrigate land with shallow pumps due to water reservoir of Dhaka WASA.
After missing three deadlines, DWASA started supplying water from January this year. Water supply was expected to start from March 2018. The project was launched on May 21 in 2015.
As many as 1.5 million people were supposed to benefit from the project.
DWASA now supplies 450 million litres of water to Mirpur through 92 deep tube-wells in zone 4 and 73 deep tube-wells in zone 10.
When asked, DWASA managing director Taqsem A Khan said they were aware of the problem being faced by the people in Bhakurta area. DWASA has been solving water crisis of the city and that area will also be their mandate in case of this type of problem.
DWASA was due to supply 150 million litres of water to greater Mirpur daily from Tetuljhora-Bhakurta Well Field Construction Project.
The plant, located in Savar sub-district under Dhaka, aims to address water crisis at Mirpur during dry season.
It covers Mazar Road, Ahmadnagar, Uttar and Dakkhin Bishil, Rupnagar, Monipur, Senpara, Mirpur sections 1, 2, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, Pallabi and Mirpur DOHS.
Major project components include 46 deep tube-wells, two iron removal plants (75,000 m3/day each), surface reservoir (8160 m3), chlorination plant, office building, transmission and distribution pipeline.
At that time, Mr Taqsem said the Tetuljhora-Bhakurta aquifer is 250 metres deep and water reserve will not deplete in 30-40 years.
The source of water of this reservoir is at the Himalaya. DWASA and IWM explored it in 2007. DWASA got the study report in 2009.
The construction of the present well field with a 7.71-hectare area is part of the 2009 master plan.
DWASA planned to extract 60 per cent water of the reservoir for 40 years.
Exim Bank of Korea and Government Agency for Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) have been providing Tk 3.63 billion while Bangladesh government Tk 2.0 billion and DWASA Tk 100 million out of the total Tk 5.73 billion cost.
There is another reservoir at Singair in Savar where a well field will be constructed in the second phase. Another 150 million litres of water will be supplied from the plant.
Dhaka gets a total of 2.40 billion litres of water from DWASA daily.
Of the total, about 78 per cent is groundwater and 22 per cent is surface water.
By the year 2021, 70 per cent will be surface water and 30 per cent groundwater establishing an environment-friendly, pro-people and sustainable water supply system, WASA sources said.
At present, DWASA has a capacity to produce 2.55 billion litres of water daily. DWASA supplies 2.45 billion to 2.52 billion litres water alone. Of the total, only 490 million litres of water is surface water supplied after filtering at five water purifying stations. The rest 2.06 billion litres are supplied by extracting water through 865 deep tube-wells.
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