Thirsty town

Patuakhali town in summer's blazing heat is more than usually parched. A drop in the water level in tube well pipes to around 32 feet below the surface, caused by a corresponding dip in subterranean water tables, has left around half of the town's 1,150 wells inoperable. In the midst of a serious water crisis, town-dwellers are worried.

“I have a tube well in my household yard but for the last three months it's been dry,” says Abul Bashar of Old Hospital Road.

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“We have to search for water because our own tube well has no water in it,” says another resident, Md Islamil Hossain from the Titas Cinema Hall Road area. “It's a big problem.”

At the Baitul Aman mosque meanwhile a good number of women and children are taking advantage of a pipe to collect fresh water supplies.

“There are actually two water tables starting at around 850 and 1000 feet below the surface respectively,” explains Sarder Shamsul Islam, an executive engineer with the public health engineering department. “Both have dropped. At their former levels, water inside the tube well pipes used to sit at around 25 feet below ground, which made it easy for the wells to draw water. Now it has fallen to 32 feet. Many hand-powered wells can't lift the water that far.”

Tube well contractors like Syed Chunnu Mia have also marked the change. “Earlier we could sink a tube well to somewhere beyond 850 feet to reach fresh water,” he says.

“Now it requires a depth of 1,000 feet to be sure. Deeper wells cost more. A well used to cost around Tk 50,000 to install. Now it's more like Tk 65,000.”

Patuakhali municipality's executive engineer Abdul Halim says his department is aware of the problem. “We have already sunk eight new production-type tube wells which feature a six-inch diameter pipe. We are awaiting two more. We hope that the water crisis will be reduced after that work is completed. We have also sent a proposal to install ten generators to power production pumps so that deeper groundwater can be lifted smoothly at all times, even during periods of grid electricity disruption.”

Around 80,000 people live within the 26 square kilometres of Patuakhali municipality. A total of 850 public and 300 private wells are currently relied upon for water.