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Farhin Antara, a private company official residing on Road 13 of Adabar in Mohammadpur, has been experiencing water crisis in her locality for the past few days. Water is only available once a day. Due to her busy schedule at the office, she cannot store water and faces difficulties when she returns home. As a result, she has to go to her mother’s home in the neighbouring area to bathe and wash clothes.
Similarly, people on Road 9 of Shekhertek are also facing a prolonged water crisis. Aynal Hossain, a small businessman, claims that they hardly receive any water supply. Even when water is available once a day, it is unusable as it is black and has a foul odor.
Beauty Akhter, a housewife residing in the Shekhdi area of Jatrabari, also expressed her grievances about the water supply. These complaints are not unique to Antara, Aynal, or Beauty. Many residents of Dhaka are suffering from water shortages.
In an effort to alleviate the water crisis, a water pump has been installed in the Noorer Chala area of Ward 39 of Dhaka North City Corporation with the assistance of a local resident. The councilor of the area mentioned that the location was provided by the locals, and the pump was subsequently installed. It is hoped that this intervention will mitigate the water problems.
The concerned individuals point out that the high temperatures and frequent power outages have contributed to the water scarcity. In some areas of the capital, water has been unavailable for the past three to four days.
Although recent rainfall has temporarily eased the problem, water scarcity persists in many areas. Experts warn that if temperatures rise again, similar water shortages may resurface.
Complaints regarding water problems have been received from several areas, including Aftabnagar, Bansari, Bhatara, Khilkhet, Ibrahimpur, Kafrul, Bhashantek, Dayaganj, Maniknagar, Jurain, Matuail, Konapara, Dogair, and Kadmatli.
In some of these areas, water supply does not meet the demand. Additionally, the people in certain areas are unable to purchase water sold by Dhaka WASA through vehicles according to their requirements.
Dhaka WASA officials state that the irregular power supply hampers the operation of water pumps. Moreover, due to the extreme heat, the demand for water has exceeded the normal levels, leading to a crisis.
According to Dhaka WASA, the city requires 255 to 260 crore litres of water per day under normal circumstances. WASA is capable of producing around 280 crore liters of water. However, system losses and pump failures occasionally disrupt the supply.
WASA further explains that the recent heatwave has increased the demand to approximately 300 crore liters per day, exacerbating the crisis in many areas.
Approximately 67 per cent of Dhaka WASA’s water supply comes from underground sources, extracted through deep tube wells utilising electric pumps.
Currently, Dhaka WASA operates more than 1,000 pumps throughout the city. In the event of a power outage, WASA relies on its own generators to run the pumps. However, the generators do not have the capacity to operate all the pumps simultaneously, resulting in the shutdown of several pumps.
Residents who are suffering from water shortages express their concerns about living without water during hot weather. The demand for water has increased, but the supply is inadequate.
As a result, people have alleged that the only alternative when water is not available through the main pipeline is to purchase water from Dhaka WASA, which is delivered through vehicles. These vehicles have different capacities, ranging from 2,000two to 6,000 liters, and are priced between Tk 300 and Tk 600. However, upon arrival, they demand Tk 800 to Tk 1,000 for water supply.
AKM Sahid Uddin, Dhaka WASA’s director of operation and maintenance, acknowledges that not all pumps are running due to load shedding. The insufficient capacity of the generators to run all the pumps has led to this crisis.
