City dwellers get filthy, stinky WASA water

Residents in many areas of the Dhaka city are getting water fouled with filth and stench from the WASA supply lines for the last few weeks, making their lives miserable.
The situation deteriorated in the past two weeks in several areas of the city, including Moghbazar, Naya Paltan, Sheorapara and Mirpur.
The residents in these areas complained that the WASA water they got was blackish and stinky, not suitable for human consumption, and posed serious health hazard.
Sadman Morshed Ronny, a schoolteacher of Moghbazar area, said, ‘The WASA water is not at all usable. We’ve to buy bottled water for drinking, which has increased our cost of living.’
Farzana Haque, a housewife of the area, said, ‘The WASA water is so filthy, having bad smell that we cannot bathe and do other household works with such water.’
‘The situation has worsened as the water cannot be used even for cooking. We’ve to buy water from outside for cooking and other household purposes,’ said Rabeya Begum, another resident of Moghbazar.
Sadia Tabassum, a resident of Naya Paltan area, said water at her house was often soiled and stinky.
‘We’re getting dirty water with bad odour through the WASA pipeline for several months. For the first few months, we got contaminated water with young earthworms,’ said Rokeya Begum of the area.
Now the situation has improved slightly, as the earthworms are not found in tap waters, but the stench remains, she said, adding that they have to fetch water every day from the nearby Arambagh pump for drinking and cooking.
The city dwellers alleged that the WASA authorities did not take any action to resolve the problem though they were informed of the matter.
A WASA official, wishing anonymity, said the problem was caused by the leakages in pipelines. Filthy water from open road drains gets mixed with the piped water through such leakages.
He said they were taking immediate action to repair the leakages and things were likely to improve soon.
Residents of Sheorapara complained that they were getting stinky water from WASA supply lines for the last two days.
Khadiza Akhter, a housewife of Iqbal Road at Sheorapara, told the news agency they were getting bad smell from the WASA supply water for the last two days after the city experienced the season’s first rain last Wednesday.
Mamun, a caretaker of a house in the same area, said water with bad smell was found after the rain, as the drainage system was inundated and fouled water got mixed with the piped water.
‘We cannot collect fresh drinking water from the WASA supply lines, as the piped water in this area got contaminated,’ he said.
When contacted, local WASA office staff blamed the house owners for the malady and said that most of the house owners create holes in the WASA pipelines for taking illegal connections. Sewage water enters into WASA supply line through these holes, they added.
They added that WASA collects water from around 700 feet under the ground. So, the water it supplies cannot be polluted or can have bad smell unless there is any leakage in the pipes.

Courtesy of UNB via NewAgebd