Water crisis acute in most areas of Khulna city
Women and children gather to fetch water from a roadside tube-well at Shelkhpara in Khulna city. Wasa's failure to supply adequate water through pipelines makes a large number of city dwellers dependent on such tube-wells. Photo: STAR
People of Khulna city are suffering from acute crisis of water as Khulna Water and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) can meet only one-third of the water requirement of about 15 lakh people in 31 wards of the metropolitan city. Struggle for water has become a common feature as supply lines have dried up in many localities. In several areas people do not go to bed till early hours just to collect a few drops of safe drinking water. Besides, long queues at roadside tube wells are also a commonplace in the metropolis Khulna Wasa, which came into being in 2008, can supply 3.50 crore litres of water through pipelines and six crore litres with the help of 10,000 tube wells against the total need of 24 crore litres of water a day, said SM Jaglul Haider, deputy managing director (DMD) of Wasa. Contacted, Managing Director of Khulna Wasa Md Abdullah told this correspondent yesterday, "We would spare no pain to resolve water crisis as early as possible. An agreement of Tk 1,300 crore has been signed with the government of Japan for installation of 51 kilometres of new pipelines and purifying of water to be taken from the Madhumati River in Mollahat upazila of Bagerhat district." "Besides, another agreement for Tk 500 crore is likely to be signed with Asian Development Bank. Two to five years would be needed to implement these projects to resolve water crisis in Khulna city," he added. Meanwhile, Khulna Wasa has decided to resume its drive for realising outstanding bills amounting to Tk 3 crore and 57 lakh. "We have already served notices to defaulters to pay up their outstanding bills to avoid disconnection of water supply lines," said Dr Md Alamgir Hossain, another DMD (Finance and Administration) of Khulna Wasa. During the collection drive from June 22, a special police team will assist a high-powered team of officials to face any unwanted situation, he said. Earlier on April 13, Khulna Wasa launched a similar drive but it had to be suspended four days later amid angry protests from subscribers who blasted Wasa's failure to meet their water requirement. A sum of Tk one crore 28 lakh 60 thousand and 592 has fallen arrear to government and non-government organisations of Khulna city while the total amount of outstanding bills to around 15,000 subscribers now stands at Tk 2 crore 28 lakh and 39,408, according to official sources of Wasa. With outstanding bills of Tk 17 lakh 44 thousand and 425, Khulna Development Authority remains the highest defaulter, followed by Division-2 of Khulna PWD (Tk 17 lakh 35 thousand and 126) and the Office of the Khulna Divisional Commissioner (Tk 11 lakh 18 thousand and 480).
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments