Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) is planning to increase the water tariff as a huge amount of money is needed to treat the surface water.
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
