More than three lakh patients were hospitalised with diarrhoea across the country since the waterborne disease outbreak in mid-March. Though the waterborne disease spread in several districts, most of the reports cover the capital city. Meanwhile, 29 diarrhoea patients died so far as per the data of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) Hospital. The data also showed that 997 fresh patients were admitted to the hospital on Friday which was the highest record in a single day in the health care facility.
Since the outbreak of the waterborne disease in mid-March, the situation is deteriorating constantly. More than 9000 patients were admitted there in the first week of April, while more than 34,000 infected persons got admission to icddr,b so far since March. Experts blamed polluted water supplied by Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) for the sudden and serious outbreak of the disease.
Drinking contaminated water is the main reason for the outbreak of the waterborne disease, so people should be aware enough and avoid unsafe water in their every use. WASA Managing Director Taqsem A Khan claimed that the water of Dhaka WASA is harmless. In 2019, a resident of Jatrabari went to the WASA office with dirty water and threw a challenge, but he did not dare to accept it. Not only in Jatrabari, but in most parts of Dhaka the water supplied by WASA is unfit for human consumption.
No matter what WASA says, one of the sources of waterborne diseases is Dhaka WASA water. Especially low-income people, who do not have access to boiled water, have to drink dirty water and it spreads diarrhoea. Apart from this, the disease can also be spread from the water and food provided by the cheap hotels and restaurants on the side of the road.
