Hot spell makes life miserable

The juxtaposition of this three-dimensional problem has been causing untold sufferings to the common people for the last few weeks.

The resumption of second unit of Raozan Power Plant on Wednesday has made little impact in improving the situation.

There seemed no respite for the residents soon so far weather forecast is concerned.

"Hot spell may continue for few more days," Farah Diba, duty forecasting officer (DFO) of Chittagong Met Office told this correspondent on Sunday.

Such scorching hot spell usually persists till mid-May, she said.

Farah, however, predicts a change in wind pattern and little shower after the next week . "The sky has formed some cloud today and if it does repeat next one or two days then we can expect a rain at the end of this month."

The port city on May 4 recorded 38.4 degree Celsius temperature, highest in recent years, she added.

"Well, the heat wave can be understandable as it is quite natural in this season but what about the water crisis or loadshedding," asked Mainul Haq, a resident of Agrabad.

"We are tired of hearing the same old excuses or stereo-typed explanations from the officials concerned."

"Whenever you approach them with complaints, they used to appear positive and promise immediate remedies but never fulfilled those," Hosne Ara Begum, a housewife at Katalganj, said.

Meanwhile, the heat wave is causing suffering to the city dwellers as many of them were attacked with viral fever, running of nose, diarrhea, chicken pox and other complicacies. Children are the worst sufferers of the diseases.

Crisis of drinking water in the second largest city has also been acute for years. Demand for water is increasing with the growth of population. The water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA) in Chittagong has failed to meet even 50 per cent of the demand.

WASA hardly takes initiative to mitigate water crisis in Chittagong.

The city of 35 lakh people, requries10 crore gallon of water daily. But WASA can supply only 3.5 crore gallon.

WASA Chairman AFM Solaiman Chowdhury at a view exchange meeting with journalists on Saturday said that Chittagong WASA was sinking due to massive corruption and irregularities.

On the other hand, power generation in Chittagong emerges as a matter of growing concern with the water level of Kaptai Lake declining fast and a mechanical glitch at Raozan Thermal Power Plant immediately after resumption of operation on Wednesday.

The 'curve role' of water of Kaptai Lake was 77.06 Mean Sea Level (MSL) on Thursday as against 90 MSL, the minimum height required for safe operation of Kaptai Hydroelectric Power Plant, sources said.

This poses a threat to all the three units of the plant because the water level bellow 73MSL will force suspension of their operation, they added.

Only 110MW comes from Raozan Power Plant unit no. 1 daily since suspension of power generation at the unit no. 2 on January 4.

Operation of Raozan unit no. 2 resumed on May 5 after four months only to trip again only ten hours later due to mechanical glitch.

PDB officials, however, said that operation of unit no. 2 resumed again on May 7.

Around 630MW of power is generated in Chittagong when all the power plants including Raozan Plant, Kaptai Plant and Shikalbaha Plant are in full operation.

At present, total power generation in Chittagong stands at 250MW as against the daily demand of 465MW.