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‘Water comes once a week’: Many Ctg Wasa consumers are suffering due to old pipelines

‘Water comes once a week’: Many Ctg Wasa consumers are suffering due to old pipelines

Authorities have acknowledged the crisis, saying 10% of their service area is now experiencing outages

TBS report

02 November 2024 07:35

Last updated: 02 November 2024, 09:09

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

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

Chattogram Wasa consumers in some areas, mostly in remote areas of the city, complained that they are now facing severe water crisis as the supply continues through old pipelines causing frequent breakdowns.

In some areas, customers say they get water once after waiting a whole week.

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

Chattogram Wasa office management has acknowledged the problem, saying that 10% of their service area is currently experiencing outages.

The new customers were connected to the old pipelines when the water supply development project was being carried out, so they now have supply interruptions, they explained.

Chief Engineer Maqsood Alam told TBS that connections in remote areas are not yet covered by DMA (District Metering Area) technology and new pipelines. “New projects for the development of water supply systems, including the installation of new pipelines in remote areas, are under development. Existing problems will be solved after their implementation.”

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

In addition, the Karnaphuli Water Supply Project-02 replaced 700 km of old pipelines in an area of ​​55 square kilometers stretching from the city center. According to the project, the quantity and pressure of water supplied is constantly monitored and controlled using DMA (District Metering Area) technology.

However, water supply to Patenga city, Kattoli, Zakir Hossain Road, Dakshin Hulshi, Foys Lake, Akbar Shah and Hathazari areas was still through the 400 km old pipeline.

Currently, under the Bhandal Juri Water Supply Project, a new pipeline network of 133 km is being installed in Boalkhali, Patiya and Anwara Upazilas.

Chattogram Wasa (Mod Circle) Chief Engineer Nurul Amin told TBS that some new connections have also been made while working on the Karnaphuli water supply project, but they are yet to be connected to the new pipeline. Due to old pipelines, proper supply is not possible.

According to him, work is currently underway to connect new connections to new pipelines and related modification problems.

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