Managing Director Taksim A Khan on Saturday claims that the water supplied by the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA) in the capital is 100 per cent drinkable.
At the same time he rejected the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB)’s findings regarding WASA water.
The TIB found that the city residents have to burn gas worth Tk 3.32 billion every year for making WASA water drinkable.
The WASA Managing Director was speaking at a press conference at the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity in the capital on Saturday.
Terming the TIB study one-sided and ill-motivated, the WASA MD also said the report was prepared without doing any laboratory test.
“We’ve collected 243 samples from
different parts of Dhaka in November 2018 and found the standard of water satisfactory,” Taksim A Khan said.
Sometimes, contaminated water is found in few old supply line, but the authorities resolve the problem immediately, he added. The anti-graft watchdog in its study published on Wednesday showed that 93 per cent consumers reported that they made the supply water drinkable in various ways, of which 91 per cent reported that they boiled before using water for drinking.
It has been estimated that for the purpose of making the water drinkable by boiling has an implication of burning natural gas amounting 365,7,37,008 cubic metres, which cost approximately Tk 3.32 billion every year, said the study. Terming the study as fictitious and unrealistic, Taksim A Khan rejected the statement that all consumers boiled WASA water. On the issue of burning natural gas, he said the WASA earns Tk four billion as revenue and another Tk two billion by reducing system loss and this was not mentioned in the TIB study.
