Consumers cut back on ATM water after price hike

Highlights

• Total booths in Dhaka City: 330
• Operational booths: 242
• Registered customers: Over 4 lakh
• Water price hike: 100%
• Cause of price hike: to reduce subsidy
• Daily purchase: Decreases to 12 lakh litres from 14 lakh litres
• Dhaka Wasa, in partnership with US-based firm Drinkwell starts the project in 2017

  In the Dilu Road area of the capital city, the family of Md Hamid, like many residents, requires about 20 litres of drinking water daily. He used to purchase 20 litres of water from a booth at a rate of 40 paisa per litre.   

However, since the beginning of August, after a sudden doubling of the water price, he has stopped buying water from the booth altogether. Instead, his family now purifies water for consumption by boiling it on their gas stove at home.

"I used to buy 20 litres of water per day, but now I don't buy even 20 litres a week. The water price suddenly increased, so I now boil water to purify it," Hamid told The Business Standard recently.

The operator of the water booth on Dilu Road, Fahad, told TBS, "Before the water price increase, about 14,000 litres of water used to be sold from this booth every day, which has now dropped to 7,000 litres. There are about 14,500 registered customers at this pump. This effect has been caused by the sudden doubling of the water price."

Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Dhaka Wasa), in partnership with the US-based company Drinkwell, has been providing drinking water to Dhaka residents at a subsidised rate through the water ATM booths. The number of customers at these booths has been steadily increasing since they were first introduced in 2017. However, since the water price was increased from 40 paisa to 80 paisa per litre on August 1, water sales have fallen by about 15%.

Customers say that the 100% increase in the price of water is unreasonable in the current economic situation where prices of essential goods are skyrocketing. On the one hand, Dhaka Wasa is failing to provide safe drinking water through the pipelines to city dwellers, and on the other, it is increasing the price of bottled water, which is putting an additional burden on people's expenses.

According to Drinkwell officials, with the help of Dhaka Wasa they set up water ATM booths at 330 locations of the two city corporations of Dhaka. Now around 90 of these booths are currently closed.

Among them, 242 booths are operating in various areas, including Mirpur, Agargaon, Shawrapara, Basabo, Fakirapool, Azimpur, Mohammadpur, Kamalapur, Gabtali, Uttara, Dayaganj, Badda, Vatara, Bashundhara, Mohakhali, Moghbazar and others. Thera are more than 4 lakh registered customers in Dhaka. Before the increase in water price, the daily purchase of water was 14.5 lakh litres but now the number of customers has increased but water purchases have decreased by around 15%. Currently the average daily water purchase is around 12 lakh litre.

Dhaka Wasa supplies piped water to households across the city, but many city dwellers consider it unsafe to drink due to leaks and contamination. As a result, many people even avoid bathing with Dhaka Wasa's pipeline water, and they don't drink it without purification.

Low-income people affected much

Modhubagh area resident Humayun Kabir told TBS, "We used to drink boiled water, but it was expensive and sometimes smelled bad. After the Drinkwell water booth was set up, we started collecting water from there. It only cost 150 taka per month, but it's still too expensive for us, so we're buying less water than before. We used to consume 15 litres of water per day, but now I've reduced that to 10 litres. As low-income people, we have to cut back on everything, even water."

Rameshwar Das, director of the Water ATM Booth Project and executive engineer of Dhaka Wasa, said, "Drinkwell is paying for the cost of installing our booths, refining the water, and paying the salaries of the booth employees. Even then, we have to pay electricity costs and a monthly bill to maintain these booths. Before increasing the price of water, we had to provide a subsidy of about 30 paisa per litre of water for these costs. So, the price has been increased to 80 paisa to reduce the subsidy. Of this, 10 paisa will go to the government's exchequer. After the price increase, a balance has been ensured with Dhaka Wasa's expenditure and income at the water booth.

He said in the past the low price of water led many people to use it for purposes other than drinking. Therefore, the price of water has been increased to reduce Wasa's subsidy and prevent water waste, taking into account the prices of various products.

At the outset, Rameshwar Das said, Drinkwell ATMs were installed to provide clean water to the lower-income people of the city. However, all classes of people now collect water from these booths, he added.

Dhaka Wasa and Drinkwell plan to install 500 water ATM booths in Dhaka under this project. They have also installed some booths in Chittagong and Rajshahi.

Drinkwell officer Saddam Hossain Roni said the first water ATM booth was set up in the Mugda area of Dhaka in 2017 to provide safe water to the poor people of the city at a low cost. Dhaka Wasa signed a deal with Drinkwell USA for the project to run until 2026, he said.

Saddam Hossain Roni also said, "We have set up water ATMs in Chittagong and Rajshahi cities, not just in Dhaka. The water rate in Chittagong is Tk0.80 and in Rajshahi it is Tk0.60. We plan to install another 50 water ATM booths in several areas of Dhaka city and aim to open them next February."

Customers can obtain a water ATM card for Tk50 by visiting a Wasa water ATM booth with a photocopy of their national identity card and two passport-sized photos. The ATM cards can be recharged with Tk10 to Tk999 at a time through the booth operator or through mobile banking services.