Shah Alam Nur :
Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA) has increased water tariff by 5 per cent without any public hearing.
The price hike, which will be effective from July 1, this year comes at a time when WASA is struggling to meet the demand for water in the city.
The water tariff has been increased to Tk 8.9 from Tk 7.71 for 1000 litres of water (1 unit) from July 1 this year.
Taksim A Khan, Managing Director of WASA said there is no alternative to raising the water tariff to check its wastage.
He said the water tariff in Dhaka city is comparatively lower than any other cities across the world.
“It will be very difficult to run the organisation by providing subsidy if the water tariff is not increased,” the WASA MD said.
Mohammad Delwar Hossain, a resident of Mugda Jheel Par said the WASA’s decision to increase the price of water was absolutely wrong as residents of some parts of the capital have been facing drinking water crisis for the last several years.
Besides, the water WASA is supplying has a bad odor, he said.
He said families living in parts of Mugda, Bashaboo, Kadamtola, Maniknagar, Mayakanon, Tilpapara and Manda have been suffering the most.
Anwar Hossain, a resident of Mirpur area, said that still WASA could not improve its service but has increased water tariff arbitrarily. Shafiul Azam, a class V student, said because of insufficient supply he and his elder brother have to collect water from Basaboo Boudhya Mandir pump every two weeks.
Humayyun Kabir Bhuiyan, general secretary of Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) said that before the increase of the water bill WASA should improve its service.
He said the government should not increase water price as in Dhaka city many of areas are facing shortage of drinking water supply.
Dhaka WASA has been operating as a service-oriented commercial organisation. Now, the jurisdiction of Dhaka WASA is more than 360 Sq. km and the population is about 12.5 million.
