Residents of different areas in the city have been experiencing acute water and gas crises.
With the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, their problems have been aggravated further. The affected areas include Mohammadpur, Adabar, Mansurabad, Kazipara, Shewrapara, Malibagh, Gulbagh, Mugda, Manda, and Maniknagar.
Of these, the residents of Mohammadpur, Adabar, Mansurabad, Kazipara, Shewrapara, Malibagh, and Gulbagh are experiencing water crisis, while the residents of Mugda, Manda, and Maniknagar are facing gas crisis.
The affected city dwellers said the water crisis in their areas is so acute that they get water from Dhaka WASA supply lines only once every three days. "But when water comes, it comes along with sand," said Rumana Ramahman, a resident of the Mohammadpur area. She informed them that they have lodged complaints with the Dhaka WASA authority several times, but the problem still persists.
Echoing the same sentiment, Maniruzzaman of Shewrapara said that they have to collect drinking water from alternative sources to meet emergency needs as water supply from WASA lines is not available. "Sometimes, we get water from WASA lines at midnight, but at very low pressure," he told UNB.
Contacted Dhaka WASA Deputy Managing Director (O&M) Engineer A. K. M. Shahid Uddin admitted the problems but claimed they have been resolved after receiving complaints from consumers. "Some of the pumps went out of order in those areas. We repaired some and replaced others. Now, there is no problem with water there," he told UNB.
Shahid also said sometimes some consumers lodge verbal complaints with the media, but when investigated, the authenticity of the complaints cannot be verified.
Dhaka WASA officials, however, claimed that there is no gap between the demand and supply of water in Dhaka city. Rather, production capacity exceeds the demand for water, they said.
The Dhaka WASA data shows that currently, water demand in Dhaka city is 260 crore liters per day while WASA's production capacity is 290 crore liters. But a lack of a proper system to rationally supply water sometimes creates problems when a deep water pump in any area gets out of order.
Every year in summer, water shortages occur in different areas of Dhaka. The main reason for this is dependence on underground sources. In 2010, 80 percent of the water produced by Dhaka Wasa was from underground sources, which are being drawn through deep tube wells, and 20 percent was surface water.
The Dhaka WASA planned to increase surface water production to at least 70 percent by 2021. However, the target was not achieved. Still, 70 percent of WASA's daily water production comes from underground sources.
About the gas crisis, Al Amin, a resident of the Manda area, informed that most of the time, the area remains without gas. "We receive natural gas in the Titas pipeline only at midnight, and it remains for 3 hours from 1 am to 4 am," he told UNB.
But Titas gas officials admitted that the gas crisis is part of the overall shortfall in the national grid. The Titas officials said the country's gas demand is about 4000 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD), while the state-owned Petrobangla can hardly supply 2660 MMCFD, leaving about 1400-1500 MMCFD unfilled.
