People take it on themselves

Jannatul Ferdous, a house wife from Chingipara, has to carry at least five pitchers of water every day to meet the family's drinking and cooking water demand though her doctor had advised against such heavy lifting since she is suffering from chest pain for the last 15 days.

But she is unable to follow the advice and has to fetch water from a near-by house since they are not getting a drop of water from the Wasa supply line for the last one month.

“My pain increased on Thursday night after collecting five pitchers of water and I could not avoid it as there are no other family members to collect it,” said Jannatul, whose husband, a low-income person, has to spend most of his time at work.

Jannatul said she has to do all kinds of work like taking baths, washing clothes and dishes in a nearby dirty pond as there is no other alternative water source.

“I have come to Dhaka around five years back but I did not face sufferings like this before,” a tired Jannatul sighed, while washing her dishes in the dirty pond water yesterday noon.

People standing in lines to fill their share at Dogair Bazar, where locals have set up a free water tank. Photo: Palash Khan

Thousands of people of Dogair, Pachimpara, Kabrosthan Lane, part of Farmer Mor, Mazar Road, Salek Bhuiyan Road, Salam Bagh, and Bhuiyan Masjid Road, in Demra are facing a severe water crisis over the last two months.

Around two lakh residents of the areas are facing the problems as no water come through Wasa's pipeline, said Sheikh Abdul Kader, a resident of Dogair Bazar.

With a sweltering heat sweeping over the country for more than a fortnight, sufferings of the residents of several city neighbourhoods have worsened due to an acute water crisis, which is also triggered by the ongoing load shedding.

Many residents in the affected areas of Demra have set up around 450 feet deep tube wells spending around Tk 1.50 lakh.

“Around 200 medium size deep tube-wells were set up in the last one and half months,” said Delowar Hossain, a contractor.

Some other residents are getting water from the tube wells by connecting pipes with it and paying money.

“I have been paying Tk 500 monthly to get water through a pipe, which have reduced our sufferings a lot,” said Mobarak Hossain, a resident of Purba Para, who has been suffering for the last one year.

People wait patiently to receive water from a building at Hijbullah Road of Chingipara, whose owner willingly shares water with the residents. Photo: Palash Khan

Jahanara Begum, owner of an under-construction six-storey building at Hijbullah Road of Chingipara is a lucky one who has water in their reservoir and she is sharing it with her neighbours out of compassion.

“I never force them to return empty handed considering their sufferings,” said Jahanara.

“I come to the building to take water every day which is a 10 minutes walk, but I have to go to another house to take my bath and use the dirty pond water for washing clothes and dishes,” lamented Nazma, a resident of Kaborsthan Lane.

A local Wasa official said there are four pumps— Kunipara water pump, Shahjalal Road water pump, Momenbagh water pump and a water pump at Basher Pool, but the capacity of the pumps have been dropped around one third to one fourth due to declining ground water level.

He said to solve the problem some new water pumps are necessary and they have already taken initiative to set up two pumps at Mridhapara in Matuail and Shadhur Math in Basher Pool, which will take three to five months to come into operation.

He also said a pump at Dogair is also very necessary but they are not getting any land to do it. “If locals or public representatives can manage the land, we will take initiative to set up the pump,” he said.