Water crisis extreme in many Dhaka city areas

For the past few days, the temperature in the capital has fallen to tolerable levels. But the water crisis does not seem to be over and has reached an extreme level in some areas, including Gulshan, Dhanmondi, Mohammadpur, Mirpur, Dakshin Khan and Old Dhaka.

Furthermore, water in areas like Agargoan, Shawrapara and Dakshin Khan is too dirty to be used.

For the crisis, the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) lays the fault on many old water pipelines, some damaged water pumps due to frequent power outages till last week, insufficient pumps in newly incorporated city corporation areas, and some other minor issues. 

Wasa sources also claim that at least 10% of daily produced water cannot be utilised due to wastage from some pipeline leaks as well as supplies to parks and other public areas.

Officials claim they are actively engaged in mitigating the water crisis at the earliest.

Residents in some of the affected areas, however, claim authorities are not responding even after the filing of complaints.

Even with temporary measures like using water supply trucks and running water pumps with generators, Wasa has been unable to resolve the crisis, city dwellers claim. Wasa trucks supply less than what is needed, thus making the stopgap measure ineffective, residents complained.

Over the last few days, several areas, notably Gulshan, Banani, Mohammadur, Shekertek, Badda, Banasree, Rayerbazar, Shanir Akhra, Dania, Jatrabari, Rampura, Shewrapara, Mirpur, as well as others, felt more parched than usual amid the water crisis.

Aminul Islam, a Gulshan resident, told The Business Standard that his community has been facing a water crisis for several days. "We are not getting any solution even after filing complaints. We are forced to buy water from Wasa supply vehicles every day, and even these supplies are less than the demand."

Gulshan Society General Secretary Sarwat Siraj said the water crisis in Gulshan has become acute. "We are in constant communication with Wasa and have been demanding an immediate solution to this crisis," Siraj said.

He also said, "Wasa confirmed to us that two new tube wells are being installed on the road next to Labaid Hospital. These new tube wells will be set up by next week and therefore the problem will be solved to some extent."

In addition, there is persistent water shortage throughout the day in areas like Banasree, Kalabagan, Paribagh, Shahjadpur and Khilgaon.

Sushmita Dhar, a resident of Azimpur, said the water crisis has been going on for the past few days in her area. When some water did reach houses, it was found to be dirty and smelly. Later, she had to buy water for her family, Sushmita said.

Wasa sources said that water supply has dropped significantly in Nilkhet, Azimpur, Agargoan, Uttara Model Town, Mirpur 1 and other areas.

AKM Shahid Uddin, deputy managing director of Dhaka Wasa, told TBS that an over a hundred-year-old water pipeline used to support the city once and many of its branches are still present in some areas – leading to inadequate and foul-smelling supplies in these places.

To install new pipelines, the city has been divided into 145 District Metered Areas, of which work in 100 areas has already been completed.

Furthermore, of Wasa's 914 water pumps, more than 150 have been damaged due to the recent power crisis, among other issues. Many other pumps are outdated and have not been repaired for a long time.

The water crisis in the extended areas of the two city corporations stems from a lack of sufficient water pumps. Now, in many cases, there is little physical space to install new ones. Even so, authorities are trying their best to solve the water problem, AKM Shahid added.

Currently Wasa supplies 245-250 crore litres of water per day, AKM Shahid noted. However, the summer demand is 260 crore litres per day and the announced capacity of 290 crore litres per day has been severely crimped.

Wasa Managing Director Taqsem A Khan acknowledged the water supply crisis in several zones due to loadshedding at a press conference on 8 June. He advised residents of the capital to use less water than usual to overcome the crisis.

The Wasa managing director clarified that frequent power cuts last week hindered the production of 40 to 50 crore litres of water per day.

Despite these challenges, Dhaka Wasa is making efforts to deliver water on 48 vehicles to disadvantaged areas as well as supporting the pumps with generators.

According to Dhaka Wasa sources, the organisation has the capacity to produce more water than the current demand. Typically, the daily water demand in the capital ranges from 210 to 240 crore litres during winter, but it increases to 260 crore litres during summer.

Currently, Dhaka Wasa has the capacity to produce approximately 290 crore litres of water per day. However, the organisation is currently producing an average of 240 crore litres of water daily.