Dhaka's water supply and other issues
Saturday, 14 March 2009
The daily need for water in the city, according to the statistics of Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority (DWSA), is about 2,100 million litres whereas the actual quantity supplied by it is nearly 1,600 million litres. That leaves a wide gap between the demand for, and supply of, the same. Thus, crisis of water are seen in the residential areas of the city. Particularly, some parts of the old city and even relatively new ones like Mohammadpur and Mirpur are found chronically water short to the great distresses of their residents. Media reports have been focusing on the acute water supply-related distresses of people living in these areas coinciding with the arrival of summer. The water supply was almost always found to be poor in these parts of the city for over a decade. But this year the situation, has become worse.
In this backdrop, there are also concerns about the going down of the underground water level in the city. The phenomenon continues, notwithstanding the normal addition of water to underground water table during rainy season. Actually, the annual recharge of water table is not enough to compensate for the heavy withdrawal during the summer days when demand for water peaks. Therefore, it has become even more difficult and costly to pump out underground water in the city to meet the demand. Besides, further pumping out of the already much lowered underground water would worsen the land subsidence in the city and make it more vulnerable to earthquakes.
One viable way to increase water supply in the city involves large scale use of surface water or river water. But not even a single plan for use of river waters for supplying Dhaka is in progress. The first phase of the Sayeedabad water treatment plant using the water of the Sitalakhya river was operationalised about several years ago that added to the total supply of water in the city. But no other project has been taken up since that time to further increase the water supply. The second phase of the implementation of the Sayeedabad project has been awaiting the conclusion of successful negotiations with the Danish and Canadian development agencies respectively. Two other major projects for drawing waters from the Padma to supply Dhaka city are also awaiting negotiations with donor organisations. Clearly, the new elected government needs to take a hard initiative to complete such negotiations very quickly indeed and get the funds flowing for establishing these projects in record time in the face of the worsening water supply conditions.
However, other points are also to be considered while implementing these river-based projects. All the rivers flowing past Dhaka are seen as getting more and more polluted by the unregulated drainage of all kinds of effluents into them. This has made the operation of the existing Sayeedabad plant already difficult. Therefore, it is imperative to take the steps to keep the rivers clean before more projects are taken up using river waters. That would require severe regulation of drainage of effluents in the rivers backed up by laws and their stringent application. All industries on the banks of rivers that discharge effluents on them will have to be obliged to acquire effluent treatment facilities within a time-frame. They need to be warned about a forced shut-down of their operations if they fail to heed such a directive. Meanwhile, pending the implementation of long term plans, DWASA should undertake a crash programme of sinking some deep tubewells to supply water to the parched areas during the current hot season. The move may be contra-indicated in view of the long term plan for safe water supply. But limited risks need to be taken to address the worst suffering of the people in acute water-scarce parts of the city.
In this backdrop, there are also concerns about the going down of the underground water level in the city. The phenomenon continues, notwithstanding the normal addition of water to underground water table during rainy season. Actually, the annual recharge of water table is not enough to compensate for the heavy withdrawal during the summer days when demand for water peaks. Therefore, it has become even more difficult and costly to pump out underground water in the city to meet the demand. Besides, further pumping out of the already much lowered underground water would worsen the land subsidence in the city and make it more vulnerable to earthquakes.
One viable way to increase water supply in the city involves large scale use of surface water or river water. But not even a single plan for use of river waters for supplying Dhaka is in progress. The first phase of the Sayeedabad water treatment plant using the water of the Sitalakhya river was operationalised about several years ago that added to the total supply of water in the city. But no other project has been taken up since that time to further increase the water supply. The second phase of the implementation of the Sayeedabad project has been awaiting the conclusion of successful negotiations with the Danish and Canadian development agencies respectively. Two other major projects for drawing waters from the Padma to supply Dhaka city are also awaiting negotiations with donor organisations. Clearly, the new elected government needs to take a hard initiative to complete such negotiations very quickly indeed and get the funds flowing for establishing these projects in record time in the face of the worsening water supply conditions.
However, other points are also to be considered while implementing these river-based projects. All the rivers flowing past Dhaka are seen as getting more and more polluted by the unregulated drainage of all kinds of effluents into them. This has made the operation of the existing Sayeedabad plant already difficult. Therefore, it is imperative to take the steps to keep the rivers clean before more projects are taken up using river waters. That would require severe regulation of drainage of effluents in the rivers backed up by laws and their stringent application. All industries on the banks of rivers that discharge effluents on them will have to be obliged to acquire effluent treatment facilities within a time-frame. They need to be warned about a forced shut-down of their operations if they fail to heed such a directive. Meanwhile, pending the implementation of long term plans, DWASA should undertake a crash programme of sinking some deep tubewells to supply water to the parched areas during the current hot season. The move may be contra-indicated in view of the long term plan for safe water supply. But limited risks need to be taken to address the worst suffering of the people in acute water-scarce parts of the city.