S.A.Shofiee, Sylhet :
Sylhet city dwellers are in extreme woes as water crisis is going from
bad to worse here with the onset of summer.
Scarcity of pure drinking water amid extreme heat is making life of the townspeople unbearable and the situation is getting worse gradually.Every day, people are seen waiting in long queues to collect water in various places. In most areas, In recent time, the residents experienced serious water crisis in different areas including at Rainogor, Razbari, Dorgipara, Doptori para, Mitaly Manipuri Rajbari, Sen Para, and ShahiEidgah.
Sylhet City Corporation does not supply water more than one or two hours on sunday.
On the other hand, there are some areas where water is not supplied even for once in a day.
Sakila Akhtar, a resident of Raynogor, said they face acute water crisis almost every day, which hampers cooking and their other household chores.
Sima Roy of Mitaly said they are not getting water in time for long.
Recently, the problem has become more severe, she added.
Executive engineer Ali Akbor of the water supply section of SCC admitted that they could not supply water at present as per the requirement of the city dwellers. He Could not reply this matter.
On the other hand, normal life in the Sylhet city was disrupted severely as the entire city and its outskirts remained without power for around 10 hours since Sunday 8:30pm
Residents of different city areas alleged that they had to face troubles in maintaining the household and commercial activities for lack of power.
‘Power supply was suspended immediately Sunday night at around 8:30pm and since then the supply was not restored despite repeated requests to the Power Development Board authorities,’ Anwara Begum, a housewife of the Kadamtali area in the city, alleged Monday.
She said she could not manage a single bucket-full of water to bathe her two-year-old daughter during the day. ‘Water supply has also remained suspended for lack of power,’ she added.
A printing shop owner, F Alam, of Surma Market in the city, said they failed to make delivery of posters to the clients, up to 3:00pm on Sunday because of the power crisis.
‘It will be very hard for us to make up the loss as it was the peak time for the printing business the shop owner commented with a gloomy look.
Sources in the power development authorities said the power supply across the city had to be suspended after a thunderstorm swept over the city Wednesday night and caused a major damage to the electricity supply line.
Sylhet PDB division-2 executive engineer Nazrul Islam told that they were trying to resume power supply for a short period in different areas in the city since 3:20pm on Monday.
‘Restoring the full supply will take a bit more time, as some of the transformers have been overloaded,’ he said.
Residents of many areas in the city, however, alleged that the power supply did not resume in their respective areas even after 5:30pm on Saturday.
