UNB, Beanibazar :
Patients are facing unbearable sufferings at Beanibazar Upazila Health Complex in Sylhet due to water crisis as its water pump has remained out of order for the last fourteen days.
Water crisis is not a new phenomenon at the 50-bed hospital as the water pump becomes inoperative frequently resulting in unbounded woes for those coming here for treatment, said hospital sources.
The water pump has gone out of order as many as 29 times since July last year, said Rafiqul Islam, chief office assistant of the hospital. The patients who have no other option for poor financial capacity are bound to lie here but those who are relatively solvent move elsewhere for treatment, he added. Unhygienic sanitation is another common problem in the hospital, raising further concern.
Patients and their attendants have to use the toilets pressing nose with cloths to subdue discomfort from bad odour.
Air freshener is often sprayed to remove the bad odour yet that dose not act much.
Sometimes, people manage water on their own spending money. During a recent visit, this correspondent came to know that after the hospital’s water pump went out of order 15 days back the authorities some how continued water supply managing another pump on a temporary basis but that too became inoperative one week ago.
Besides, it takes unusually long time to lift water to the reserve tank as the supply line pipe is a shabby one having ruptures in its innumerable places.
Siraj Mia, an attendant, said he managed water at his own cost as his daughter, who was a delivery patient, urgently needed that at the moment. Farmida, a patient, said her husband hired a room at a nearby residential hotel for meeting the demand of water. Selina Akter, a senior nurse of the hospital, said patients at the hospital have risk of being attacked with viral diseases due to the unhygienic condition of the toilets.
Dr SM Shahrier, medical officer of the health complex, said the water pump upon being very much old goes out of order frequently.
Recently, the authorities have repaired the pump spending Tk90,000 but in vain, he added. Upazila health officer Dr Moazzem Ali said they expect that the situation would improve within three or four days.
