Staff Reporter :
The Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA) has proposed for fixing new prices of supply water on an area-wise and customer-wise basis by dividing the capital Dhaka into 10 zones.
It has also planned to adjust the price of water by reducing it by Tk 2.5 for low income customers and raising it by Tk 22 for higher income customers.
The proposal was announced at a function to present the dissemination of a joint study by WASA and WaterAid on area-based water pricing in a city hotel on Sunday.
At present, the residential customers of Dhaka WASA are paying Tk 15.18 for 1000 liters of water while commercial customers paying Tk42 only.
WASA currently spends Tk25-26 to produce 1000 per litre of water.
As per the proposal, the price is proposed to be Tk37.50 per 1000 liter of water for upper-class residential consumers. According to WASA data, 0.80% of WASA’s customers in the city belong to the upper class.
The price of water for upper middle class households has been fixed at Tk31.25.
The middle-class people of the capital will get water at the production price. They account for four percent of WASA’s total customers in Dhaka. The price has been proposed to be Tk25, which is Tk9.82 more than the existing prices.
For the lower middle class, which accounts for 79.4 percent of WASA’s total customers in Dhaka, the price is proposed to be Tk18.75, an increase of Tk3.57.
Low-income people will pay Tk12.5 per 1000 litre of water.
The WASA authority has proposed to divide the capital into 10 zones and set the new price of water on an area-wise and customer-wise basis.
However, the proposed price will be discussed further at the customer level.
WASA has prepared the proposal for setting the price of water by checking how many categories of customers are there in Dhaka and it has also taken into consideration the relevant laws.
Under the proposed plan, Dhaka has been divided into 10 zones to determine the price of water based on the area. In this case, there may be different prices in each zone.
The difference between WASA water production price and selling price can be adjusted by setting the new prices – requiring no subsidy for the sector.
Commercial customers of WASA are currently paying Tk42 per 1000 litres of water. According to the proposed prices, it would be Tk 50 per 1000 litre of water.
Government institutions will pay the same as production cost at Tk25.
