Water crisis leaves patients miserable

An acute shortage of water at the Barishal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital (SBMCH) has persisted for close to a month, putting several thousand people in severe woes.

 The crisis started sometime in August after one of the two deep tubewells in the hospital stopped working, confirmed patients and hospital authorities.  The other one is also not working at full capacity.

 According to hospital authorities, the 1,150-bed hospital, established in 1968, currently receives about 2,000 patients a day. The patients are accompanied by their relatives, who are nearly double in number. At any given time, there's around seven to eight thousand people crowding the hospital every day.

The shortage of usable water has created such a situation that many patients are being forced to use polluted and harmful water for sanitary and other needs. This is not just limited to patients; doctors, nurses, and other staffers are also suffering.

 Attendants and relatives of patients told this correspondent on Sunday that they're struggling with toilets, bathing, and doing dishes and laundry due to the water crisis. As an alternative, they are resorting to temporary means such as carrying water from outside and purchasing bottled water.

A 42-year-old woman admitted at the gynecology department said, "We have to bathe in the open at a tubewell outside."

A patient named Amir (55), admitted at the medicine ward, said hygiene at the hospital was in disarray especially due to the lack of water in the toilets.      Not only are they finding it hard to clean themselves, the lack of water is also making it difficult to clean the toilets, and the stench produced from them are spreading into the wards.

Contacted, director of the hospital Md Bakir Hossain said the Public Works Department is responsible for the infrastructure and water management of the hospital. They have been asked to take appropriate action in this regard.

Meanwhile, temporary arrangements have been made so that patients can take water from tubewells situated outside the hospital, he added.

Oliver Guda, executive engineer of the Public Works Department, Barishal, told this correspondent, "We have already installed a two-inch tubewell for the departments that are hardest hit by the water shortage. We have sent sample of the water to Dhaka for testing around one week ago, to see if the water is safe for drinking."

"At the same time, budget allocation has been sought from the Ministry of Health for installation of new tubewells. Once this is approved, we can install new tubewells and hopefully put this crisis to bed," the official added.