DHAKA Water supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA) has a master plan to bring the whole capital city under the coverage of its sewage treatment facilities remains a distant cry. The master plan was adopted in 2011 to provide a sewerage system for city dwellers. At present the untreated sewage from the vast network underneath eventually falls into surrounding rivers. Under the master plan, the WASA is for setting up four treatment plants and modernising the exiting Pagla plant.
The four new STP will be established in Dasherkandi, Uttara, Mirpur and Rayerbazar. WASA initially planned to treat all sewage by 2025, but later it expanded the plan by five years to 2030. Global lenders World Bank has granted 300 million dollars for the Dasherkandi plant and provided $300 million more for the rehabilitation work at Pagla plant. The work of Dasherkandi STP will be completed by June 2022 with a capacity of treating 500 million liters sewage every day. Dasherkandi STP will treat sewage of capital’s Gulshan, Banani, Baridhara, Badda, Aftabnagar, Hatirjheel, Tejgaon and adjacent areas. There is no progress in the implementation of the remaining three plants.
The WASA does not have capacity to treat 80 per cent of sewage and lets 450 million litres of such waste pollute rivers and the surrounding environment every day. Urban Specialists say there are no feasibility studies done by the WASA as to how can it construct pipelines to take the sewages to the plants that have been planned. It must be a huge work to construct these pipelines in this megacity where high rise buildings and other infrastructures have occupied important spaces.
With no progress of work for the implementation of three out of four new sewage treatment plants Dhaka WASA’s master plan remains mostly in papers. These new plants again will have to be connected by a large network of pipelines which still need to be constructed. Dhaka WASA should mobilise resources to turn its master plan into a reality to protect the rivers and water-bodies around the city from pollution and give Dhaka dwellers a liveable environment.
