Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) is going to set up a water treatment plant at Jasholdia point of Munshiganj, with a capacity of supplying 45 crore litres of water per day.
An agreement was signed yesterday between Dhaka Wasa and China CAMC Engineer Com Ltd in this regard. CAMC will construct the plant in 42 months.
The plant would reduce to a large extent city people’s dependency on ground water, said Abu Alam Mohammad Shahid Khan, local government secretary, while delivering a speech as the chief guest at the signing ceremony at Sonargaon Hotel in the capital.
Water from the Padma river would get treated at the plant and then pass through 33-km long pipe lines to the distribution lines near Mitford Hospital before it is supplied in Dhaka city.
The Chinese government will provide around Tk 2,500 crore out of the estimated cost of Tk 3,500 crore in soft loans and the remaining expense of the Padma Water Treatment Plant will be borne by Bangladesh.
This is the first time China is financing a treatment plant, Shahid said.
The process of land acquisition for the plant is underway and the construction work will start this year. The plant will be constructed on 94 acres of land, a Wasa official said.
Currently, Wasa can supply around 210 crore litres of water per day, 87 percent of which comes from ground water and the rest from surface water treated by four treatment plants.
Excessive extraction of water legally and illegally by deep tube wells is lowering the ground water level in the capital, posing a risk to the city’s future.
-With The Daily Star input
