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“Water comes once a week”: many Ctg Wasa consumers suffer due to old pipelines

“Water comes once a week”: many Ctg Wasa consumers suffer due to old pipelines

Authorities have acknowledged the crisis, saying 10% of their service area is currently experiencing disruption.

TVS report

November 02, 2024, 07:35

Last modified: 02 November 2024 09:09.

Toxic waste from factories in Dhaka’s Shyampur area flows directly into the Buriganga River, turning the water black and emitting a strong foul odor. Once a thriving waterway, the river is now heavily polluted by industrial wastewater, human waste and plastic. This photo was taken recently. Photo by Mehedi Hasan

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Toxic waste from factories in Dhaka's Shyampur area flows directly into the Buriganga River, turning the water black and emitting a strong foul odor. Once a thriving waterway, the river is now heavily polluted by industrial wastewater, human waste and plastic. This photo was taken recently. Photo by Mehedi Hasan

Toxic waste from factories in Dhaka’s Shyampur area flows directly into the Buriganga River, turning the water black and emitting a strong foul odor. Once a thriving waterway, the river is now heavily polluted by industrial wastewater, human waste and plastic. This photo was taken recently. Photo by Mehedi Hasan

Chattogram Wasa consumers in some areas, mostly in outlying places, have complained that they are currently facing a severe water crisis as water supply continues through old pipelines, leading to frequent interruptions.

In some areas, consumers said they were receiving water once after waiting a full week.

“Water comes here once a week and we have to wake up at night to collect it. During the day, the water pressure remains low,” Thonmoy Mohajon, a resident of the city’s Patenga area, told The Business Standard recently.

Management at the Chattogram Wasa office acknowledged the problem, saying 10% of their service area is currently experiencing outages.

New consumers were connected to old pipelines while the water supply project was being developed, so they now face supply disruptions, they explained.

Chief Engineer Maqsood Alam told TBS that connections in remote areas are yet to be covered by DMA (District Metering Area) technology and new pipelines. “New projects to develop water supply systems, including laying new pipelines in remote areas, are in development. As they are implemented, existing problems will be resolved.”

Chattogram Wasa data shows that the company currently has a pipeline network of about 1,300 km covering an area of ​​168.21 square kilometers of the city, of which 45 km of pipelines have been replaced under the Karnaphuli-01 Water Supply Project and another 150 km under Karnaphuli Water Supply Project-01, and another 150 km under the Chittagong Water Supply and Sanitation Development Project.

In addition, the Karnaphuli-02 water supply project has replaced 700 km of old pipelines over an area of ​​55 square kilometers extending from the city center. As part of the project, the quantity and pressure of water supplied is constantly monitored and controlled using DMA (District Metering Unit) technology.

However, water supply to the urban areas of Patenga, Cattoli, Zakir Hossain Road, Dakshin Khulshi, Foy Lake, Akbar Shah and Hathazari continued to be provided through the old 400 km pipeline.

The Bhandal Jhuri water supply project is currently laying a new 133 km pipeline network in Boalkhali, Patiya and Anwara upazilas.

Chattogram Vasa (Mod Circle) senior engineer Nurul Amin told TBS that some new connections were also installed while work on the Karnaphuli water supply project was going on, but they were not yet connected to the new pipeline. Due to old pipelines, supply cannot be carried out properly.

According to him, work is currently underway to include new connections in the scope of new pipelines and related modification issues.

According to the Wasa Revenue Department, there are currently over 91,000 connections in Chattogram, of which 93% are residential and 7% are commercial. About 3.2 million residents of the port city are under the cover of the supplier.