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]]>‘We putting emphasis on surface water sources to gradually reduce dependence on groundwater. We’re trying to bring water from the Padma and Meghna Rivers to supply water to capital Dhaka. We’re working to set up a water treatment plant beside the Padma River,’ WASA managing director Taksim A Khan told the news agency.
He said WASA has a plan to introduce sustainable and environment-friendly water management by 2020 to supply water from over-ground sources.
‘About 70 per cent of WASA water will come from surface sources by 2020 to ensure an environment-friendly water management,’ he said.
Only 22 per cent of WASA water currently comes from surface water sources, according to WASA officials.
About challenges to implement the plan, the WASA managing director said a huge amount of money ($1.6 billion) is needed for capital Dhaka to shift to surface water from the ongoing underground water source.
Referring to the highly contaminated water of the Buriganga, Shitalakhya, Balu and Turag, Taksim Khan said water of these rivers except Shitalakhya could not be treated due to highly chemical contamination. ‘So, we’ve taken up a plan to bring water far away from the Padma and Meghna rivers.’
Official sources said Dhaka WASA will bring water from Jamuldia point of the Padma River and a water treatment plant will be set up in Munshiganj.
Meanwhile, the authorities concerned appointed a consultant to give advice how to install the water treatment plant in the area.
The Dhaka WASA authorities expect that the construction work on the water treatment plant will be completed by 2016. Once fully operational, about 45 crore litres of water will come from the plant every day and the water will be supplied to the city through a 33-km pipeline.
Besides, the authorities concerned with financial support from the Asian Development Bank have already taken up another plan to set up another water treatment plant in the city’s Khilkhet area.
The water will be brought from the Meghna River to treat water in the plant. After the installation of the Khilkhet water plant, it will be capable to produce 50 crore litres of water a day.
A feasibility study on the plant has already been completed and negotiations are going on to appoint a consultant for setting up the water treatment plant, the officials said.
The production capacity of Dhaka WASA now stands at around 242 crore liter a day against the demand for 213 crore. Now WASA can stop operation of 100 underground water lifting power pumps.
-With New Age input
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]]>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
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A year after the High Court directed Dhaka Wasa to seal off sewage outlets into the Buriganga, Wasa says 70 percent of the capital’s sewage is illegally dumped into the Buriganga.Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) said it had no sewage lines of its own that go into the river directly and that its sewage lines go to Pagla Sewage Treatment Plant and the plant dumps the water into the river after treating the sewage.
Taqsem A Khan, managing director of Dhaka Wasa, told The Daily Star that the 70 percent sewage, on which Wasa has no control of, was supposed to be treated by the clients themselves.
He said Dhaka Wasa has Storm Water Drainage Pipe Lines connected to the Buriganga for draining out rain and flood water from the capital.
He also said a section of dishonest people dump waste into those pipes at night and some others have made illegal sewage connections to the pipes which pollute the river.
Taqsem said they are taking appropriate actions against those found dumping waste into the storm water drainage pipes and connecting sewage lines to it.
His office has already informed the High Court of this through a report, he claimed.
Following a writ petition, the High Court on June 1 last year ordered Dhaka Wasa to seal off all sewerage and industrial waste lines linked to the Buriganga within a year. The deadline to implement the directive expired on June.
However, counsel Manzill Murshid, who had moved the petition before the High Court a year ago, was not pleased. He said Wasa was to blame since it was its job to prevent people from making illegal connections to the storm water pipes and the Buriganga.
People who make new buildings in the capital have to have permission from Wasa for making sewerage connections and Wasa is responsible to monitor how those connections are being made, he said.
Manzill said the High Court had also issued some other directives on the authorities concerned for stopping disposal of waste into the Buriganga, but none of those directives was carried out.
He also said he has not got any report from the authorities on compliance of the High Court directives by Wasa.
The counsel said he had no other alternatives to moving a contempt of court petition before the High Court against the authorities if they did not carry out the directives.
Director of Department of Environment (Enforcement) Munir Chowdhury, however, said they were taking all possible measures to stop disposal of waste into the Buriganga to save it from pollution.
“We are launching drives against the industries which are dumping waste into the river, fining them and also directing them to set up effluent treatment plants to save the river,” he said.
He added that DoE authorities were organising programmes with the people residing near the banks of the river to create awareness among them to protect the river and its water from pollution.
Image (above) caption: A photo taken near the second Buriganga bridge last year shows raw sewage pouring into the river the lifeline of the capital. File Photo
Courtesy of The Daily Star
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The Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) has embarked on digging up 26 kilometre of road of the capital to lay utility pipelines but the work is progressing at a pathetic pace catching up the rainy season.In addition to the misery, the Dhaka north and south city corporations (DCC) remain indifferent as usual about taking care of the roads left in a shambles by different utility agencies after development works.
For instance, the Wasa dug many roads in Uttara (sector-1, 4 and 5) last year to upgrade storm water drainage system which the DCC took a year to repair.
In March this year, the Wasa embarked on digging roads in Uttara and Gulshan which had been dug by another utility agency in February.
Thus, digging roads of the capital by different utility agencies one after another, instead of in a coordinated manner, is making public suffering perennial.
GULSHAN
Recently, the Wasa has started digging four kilometres of road in Gulshan to lay storm sewer lines with a view to diverting polluted water from falling in Gulshan-Baridhara Lake under a Tk 50-crore project.
Three kilometres of it stretches from United Hospital to Niketan Lake while the rest one kilometre is from Gulshan-1 roundabout to the national shooting federation.
The entire development work in Gulshan that began late in February would take until June to complete, said Akhtaruzzaman, executive engineer of Wasa.
Last month, Wasa dug up roads No-86, 90, 92, 94, 96, 104, 113, 118, 123 and 126 of the area all at a time. This significantly narrowed down the motorways with trenches on one side and large concrete pipe kept on the other side occupying most to the road span.
So, vehicles on the roads are forced to run through one narrow lane on each side triggering huge traffic congestion in the area.
Asked about the work strategy, Akhtaruzzaman said the concrete pipes were so heavy that it would have been difficult for them to keep the pipes elsewhere and bring them to the site when needed.
Sitara Chowdhury, a resident of road-126, said the Wasa did not issue them any notice prior to digging up the road in front of their house.
“My husband could not go to the office by car for a week due to the road digging. I wonder what would have happened if we needed to move out in an emergency or had anyone fallen sick,” she said.
During the development work, the Wasa had to put around 100 large concrete pipes on one side of the Gulshan Avenue for a month as they did not have the permission to dig the road from the traffic department.
MIRPUR
The Wasa dug up a large portion of Darussalam Road, stretching from Mirpur to Technical intersection, nearly four months ago to lay storm sewer line but the work remaines suspended due to the ongoing water pipeline work along Mirpur road.
Rukhsana Begum, a roadside vendor on Darussalam Road, said traffic movement there came to a complete standstill every day during the peak hours.
Hamidur Rahman, a commuter from Mirpur, said traffic gridlock due to the narrowed down road had been causing unbearable suffering to the commuters for the last several months.
During rush hours it took hours to pass through Mirpur-1 to Asad Gate, as the road had been dug in the middle for the work underground, he added.
Another project for second Sayedabad water treatment plant and installation of a 10-km supply pipelines has also added to the suffering.
Under the Tk 1,400-crore project funded by DANIDA and the government, the Wasa is laying a 5.5-km pipeline digging the Mirpur Road between Technical intersection and Panthapath.
Two-kilometre water pipeline from Tibbot in Tejgaon Industrial Area to the national shooting federation and a 2.5-km from Rampura to Malibagh are also under the project.
Site officials said it would take until June to finish the digging work.
Shahid Uddin, superintendent engineer of Wasa Drainage Circle, said a 12-kilometre work for laying storm-water pipeline started in Uttara, Mirpur, Dhanmondi, Mouchak, Shahjahanpur, Moghbazar more than two months ago and the job was to be completed by mid May.
DHANMONDI AND UTTARA
The Wasa dug 3.5-km stretch of Dhanmondi roads No-5, 6, 7 and 9 in February to lay storm sewer lines. The work completed in a month but the DCC is yet to repair the roads.
The same length of road has been dug in Uttara and it will continue until mid-May.
Taqsem A Khan, managing director of Wasa, said they had to start digging the roads at this time of the year as DCC (north and south) permits it from November to May.
DCC officials admitting the public suffering said different agencies get project approval at different times and therefore coordination in the road-digging work was not possible.
It is true that DCC in some cases delayed in repairing the dug-up roads, they said, but for Gulshan they had started the repair work immediately after the Wasa finished its work.
Prof Shamsul Hoque of civil engineering department at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology said since neighbourhoods like Gulshan had been developed in an unplanned manner — without building proper utility networks — public suffering is inevitable.
The Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) is responsible for the unplanned development, even in the cases of Uttara and Purbachal schemes, where underground utility network was not ensured before developing the housing plots, said experts.
Courtesy of The Daily Star
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]]>During a programme at the plant on Wednesday, where Denmark’s ambassador Svend Olling and France’s ambassador Charley Causeret were present, a lorry supplied Alpine Fresh water for drinking.
An official of the plant said that they received water bottle supplies from Alpine Fresh for drinking at the plant all the time.
The DWASA managing director, Taqsem A Khan, said, ‘Perhaps the people who we have the contract with supply us with water processed and marketed by another company. I will look into the matter.’
About 700 people, including about 150 officers working at the Saidabad plant drink Alpine Fresh water while WASA’s own brand Shanti, which adheres to all the required standards, is facing an acute marketing crisis.
A senior official said that although Shanti is of the best quality, it is not used by other government offices.
Dhaka WASA’s Bottle Water Production Plant was set up at Mirpur in 2006 at a cost of Tk 17 crore with technical support from US company Severn Trent Services. The plant has the capacity to produce 30,000 litres of bottled water, brand-named Shanti, a day.
-With New Age input
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]]>Shaheda Islam, microbiologist at the Mirpur Bottled Water Production Plant (Shanti), said the authorities took the Tk 17-crore Shanti project in 2006, when a US company, Severn Trent Services, set up the plant with its own equipment.
The plant itself produces bottles and caps and purifies water through ultra violet treatment for four times, filtration with carbon filter, 0.5, 1.0 and 0.2 micron filters, reverse osmosis system, mineral dosing and ozonation, she said, detailing the process.
But despite its better quality, Shanti bottled water is not in good demand, she said, putting it down to the absence of a sound marketing policy.
The water in half, one, one and a half, two, five and twenty litres’ bottles is respectively priced Tk 10, Tk 14, Tk 18, Tk 21, Tk 50, and Tk 60.
‘See a half-litre Shanti water bottle’s wholesale price is Tk 7.70 and the retail price Tk 10 while the wholesale price of the same-size bottle of water marketed by other mineral water companies ranges between Tk 5.50 and Tk 7.50. But they are retailed at Tk 12,’ she said, explaining, ‘that is why businessmen or shopkeepers take no interest in selling Shanti water.’
She said, ‘The plant collects underground water and can treat 10,000 litres per hour. We can bottle 30,000 to 40,000 litres per day.’
Shaheda Islam, however, said at present they were bottling 15,000 litters of water because of the reduced demand in the market.
Two high officials of the plant, seeking anonymity, said WASA had no marketing policy for its Shanti mineral water, which pushed down its demand in the market.
‘We do not have any marketing department,’ said one of the high officials, adding, ‘we should also have sales representatives who could promote our water as it is the best in this country.’
They also alleged that some bottled mineral water companies at different times tried to hinder the sale of Shanti.
An official of the certification marks department of the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institute, seeking anonymity, said the institute had a standard for drinking water and every bottled water company must follow it.
He said the institute gave licence to about 15 bottled water companies which maintained good quality of their products.
‘See there are no marketing department of Shanti,’ he said, asking, ‘So how can you expect that its water will sell good?’
Shanti mineral water has twenty selling outlets in the city like at Shabagh, Ramna, Dhanmondi, Kalabagan, Farmgate, Motijheel, Mirpur, and Pallabi in the capital.
-With New Age input
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]]>Dhaka mainly depends on the underground water and its level has been going deeper alarmingly.
If the situation continues like this, the city in near future may face severe water crisis.
Of the Wasa’s current 210 crore litre production, 87 percent is coming from underground and the rest surface water.
About Tk 10,500 crore is needed to set up five more water treatment plants and that will increase the production cost, said Taqsem A Khan, managing director of Wasa.
“So, to cope with the additional cost, we need to increase the tariff,” he said while presenting a keynote paper at a roundtable on “Surface water: future of Dhaka Wasa” at Hotel Sonargaon in the capital.
Wasa is planning to increase the consumption of surface water from 13 to 70 percent by next 10 years, he added.
Information Minister Abul Kalam Azad, who was the chief guest at the programme, said Wasa will have to reduce dependency on underground water.
Renowned economist Wahid Uddin Mahmud said a balance between income of people and their expenditure on water should be there after the tariff is increased.
More areas should be kept open and bare so that rain water can be absorbed, which will help recharge the fast depleting underground water, he said.
Prof Jamilur Reza Choudhury said if Wasa increases the water tariff, it will have to supply water for free to slum dwellers who constitute 30 percent of the city’s residents.
Blaming Wasa for 40 percent of the city’s water pollution, Prof Firoz Ahmed said it has to take measures to reduce pollution of rivers and other water bodies.
Abu Alam Md Shahid Khan, secretary of local government division, said before increasing the tariff, Wasa will have to ensure supply of pure drinking water and its accountability.
Courtesy of The Daily Star
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]]>The eviction team knocked down at least 23 illegal structures including two houses but spared two mosques that encroached upon the canal.
“We will discuss the removal of the mosques with their authorities,” said Ruhul Amin, executive engineer of Wasa.
He said they engaged nearly a hundred day-labourers to demolish illegal structures on the three-kilometre canal adjacent to the Dhaka Housing project.
Asked why bulldozers were not used in the drive, the Wasa engineer said there was an uncertainty about the drive following a court stay order.
Nearly half kilometre of the canal was occupied by the illegal structures, he said.
Policemen stood guard during the eviction.
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