THOUGH the scourge of water crisis has already begun hitting Dhaka city this year, but water crisis including pure drinking water shortage has already been acute in the city’s Gandaria, Jurain, Lalbagh and Sabujbagh areas where dwellers are suffering tremendously for long, according to a report of this daily published yesterday. Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA), the sole legal entity to develop and maintain a water supply system for Dhaka Metropolitan and its surrounding areas, however seems having no initiatives to solve the crisis on priority basis.
Need to mention, on April 23 last year, in a unique protest, residents of Jurain brought lemons, a bag of sugar, and a jar of Jurain’s murky tap water to the WASA Bhaban in Karwan Bazar to “treat” WASA Managing Director Engr. Taqsem A Khan with sherbet. The small group of Jurain went to the WASA office in protest of Taqsem A Khan’s earlier claim that WASA water “is 100 per cent pure,” while also admitting that sometimes he himself boils the water at his home. Taqsem had made the comments responding to a report of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), came out on April 17, 2019 that found 91 per cent WASA subscribers have to boil the supply water to make it drinkable and, in the process, they burn gas worth Tk 332 crore a year.
But with utter surprise, the water supply authority has claimed lately that the city’s water supply situation is “much better now”. By 2021, the WASA tap water will become worth drinking, but the reality is, the citizens in Dhaka have long been complaining against Dhaka WASA. The allegations include mostly the filthiness and stench in the piped WASA water. No doubt, ensuring equitable and affordable access to safe water to this increasingly large population is going to be a monumental challenge. Therefore to this cause, the authority should have the efforts as early as possible so that we can be assured of having necessary water to use. In spite of the high promises on the part of the authorities to solve the city’s water crisis, many old residents remain doubtful this will happen no time soon.
