The WB has agreed to provide $1.20 million for project preparation and $100 million for preparing the master plans and for extending and rehabilitating the existing drainage and sewerage system.

Wasa Managing Director ANH Akhter Hossain said of the $100 million, each master plan will cost $2.5 million and the rest will be spent for extension and rehabilitation of the existing system. "It might take about two years to complete the master plans," Akhter Hossain told The Daily Star.

The Wasa covers 140 square kilometres (skm) of the city areas for drainage management although the coverage area should be about 350 to 400skm, Wasa officials said.

The city has 180km sewerage pipelines, 9km box culvert and 65 km canals. "Only 30 percent of the city population are getting sewerage facility from Wasa and the rest are yet to get it," one official said.

Many areas of the city experience serious waterlogging during rainy season due to lack of required drainage system. The areas include Uttara, Mirpur, part of Mohammadpur, Shyamoli, Kalyanpur, and parts of Gulshan, Baridhara, Khilgaon, Bashabo, Rampura and Tejgaon.

The capital has about 2500 km water supply lines and only around 790 km sewerage lines although both are supposed to be equal, Wasa sources mentioned.

Wasa water supply connections -- both domestic and commercial -- number around 2.20 lakh and there are about 50,000 sewerage connections.

People in the areas not covered by sewerage system use septic tanks that are not scientific as an alternative. And thousands of city dwellers, especially of the lower income group, are using most unscientific system of sewerage disposal polluting the environment.