Unclean Water: N’ganj Wasa officials get an earful from locals

Dhaka Wasa’s Narayanganj Mods Zone Executive Engineer Mir Abul Hashem claimed that Wasa supplies safe drinking water, but activists from “Amra Narayanganjbashi” and “Wasa Hotao Sangram Committee” disagree, saying that “the engineer himself drinks bottled water, as is evident from the bottles kept beside his desk.”

Both organisations visited Dhaka Wasa’s Narayanganj Mods Zone office in the city’s Khanpur area, to present memorandums demanding supply of purified drinking water and protesting the tax on deep tube-wells.

They gave an ultimatum that they will make Wasa officials drink the dirty water unless clean water supply is ensured before Ramadan.

Joint Secretary of Amra Narayanganjbashi, Mahmud Hossain said, “Every single DWasa official has branded water bottles in their office rooms.

They do not drink the dirty water that they supply to taxpayers, rather they buy clean water for themselves with our money.”

Md Abu Zafar Moshiur Rahman, a Narayanganj Tax Zone official, said that the branded bottles were actually filled with water from a nearby deep tube-well.

Chairperson of Amra Narayanganjbashi, Nuruddin Ahmed said, “Wasa’s water is dirty, and smells terrible. It cannot even be used for ablution, let alone drinking. Yet everyone is paying their water supply bills. Ramadan is almost upon us. Hence, we demanded clean water, but they still claim that the current supply water is drinkable.”

Convener of Wasa Hotao Sangram Committee, Advocate Mahbubur Rahman said, “Wasa fails to supply clean water so we installed deep tube-wells on our own. Now they have taxed the tube-wells and there is an ongoing case in this regard at the High Court.”

He alleged that Wasa officials have been threatening people in their homes over the case.

DWasa Narayanganj Zone’s Tax Officer Sekandar Ali said, “I received the responsibility of this zone just a few months ago. I know nothing about threats, and no such incident will occur. If anything happens then I will take action.”

He added, “We will inform higher-ups about the demands, including cancellation of approval and renewal fees of deep tube-wells.”