Staff Reporter :
Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA) has proposed to hike water tariff by 20 per cent.
It wants to increase water tariff from July saying that the proposal will be sent to the government for getting nod and if the government agrees, they can hike more than 20 per cent.
WASA took the initiative to reduce their subsidy in water supply.
“We have proposed 20 percent increase in the water price. Now, the government will take a decision on it,” Director of WASA, Taqsem A Khan, said yesterday at a press conference.
WASA thinks that it is not sufficient, this is why it sent the proposal to the LGRD Ministry for consideration.
Currently, WASA spends Tk 25 to generate one litre of water but the sale price is Tk 15, Taqsem claimed.
He said a government organisation cannot survive on begging. There is a huge gap between water price and its production cost.
Taqsem A Khan said that the government has to give a subsidy of Tk 10 against per litre of water.
According to the proposal placed in the meeting of Dhaka Wasa Board on February 7, the price of each unit (1000 litres) of water will be Tk 21 for residential use and Tk 55 for commercial use whereas the amount is Tk 15.18 for residential use and Tk 42 for commercial use at present.
The WASA Director said they have been running many projects with foreign loans and they have to pay substantial amounts to pay the installments of the loans.
There is an instruction from the high-ups of the government to reduce the subsidy on water gradually and they are trying to keep water prices at tolerable levels, he added.
On May 24, 2021, Dhaka WASA increased water tariffs by 5pc without addressing the water crisis in different places of the city at a time when a lingering Covid pandemic affected the people’s income.The increased water tariff came into effect on 1 July, 2021.
In the past 13 years till 2021, Dhaka WASA increased water tariffs for residential use by 181% from Tk 5.75 a unit in 2009 to Tk 15.18 in 2021.
Before this, in February of 2020, WASA had increased water prices for residential and commercial users. Price was fixed Tk14.46 for each unit (1,000 litres) of water for residential users back then. The price came into effect from 1 April, 2020.
Dhaka WASA can increase the water tariffs yearly by 5pc in consultation with the government as per the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority Act, 1996.
Rajshahi Wasa also increased water price recently – from Tk 2.27 to Tk 6.81 per unit for domestic consumers and from Tk 4.54 to Tk 13.66 per unit for commercial consumers.
