Residents living a nightmare
With little or no water being supplied by Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) for the last 15 days, several thousand residents of Khondokar Goli off the capital's Shiddheswari Road are struggling to go about their daily businesses.
The water crisis has been prevalent for the last six months but turned acute recently, resident Faruk Chowdhury told The Daily Star.
“I have already purchased three small tanks of water from Wasa spending around Tk 1,000 as we did not get a drop,” he said.
A security guard, Mohammad Nizam Uddin Khan Hiru, said four tankers of water being purchased daily at the 40-flat building he works at did not suffice for he had to fetch another 25 drums from Shiddheshwari Boys School Water Pump, some 500 metres away.
Each small tank costs Tk 300 while tankers cost Tk 600. Hiru, however, said they were paying Tk 1,200 for each tanker.
“I often go to my relative's home at Rampura to get some relief,” said resident Soniya Akhtar, adding that the water there was not clean, for it was giving her two-and-a-half-year old skin rashes.
Md Abdur Rahman, muezzin in the area's Baitus Suzud Jam-e-Mosque, said the mosque was requiring five drums daily for ablution purposes.
“I even bring a gallon everyday for myself from my house near Khondokar Goli,” he said.
Md Selim Sardar, operator of the Shiddheshwari pump which supplies Khondokar Goli, said production had fallen to 1,700 litres per minute while initially in 1994 it was 4,000.
This had happened once before, in 2005, but they had solved it by digging a deeper pipe just next to the old one. Now, there is no space for another pipe, he said, adding that an initiative was underway to get supplies from Sayedabad water treatment plant.
One deputy managing director of Dhaka Wasa, SDM Kamrul Alam Chowdhury, said they hoped to improve the situation within the next few days.
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