PM opens water treatment plant

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday formally inaugurated a water treatment plant in Chittagong, aiming to end the water crisis in the port city.

She opened the plant "Sheikh Hasina Water Treatment Plant", having a daily production capacity of 9.30 crore litres of water, from a function held at Chittagong Boat Club.

Chittagong Water Supply Sewerage Authority (Wasa) took the project in 2006 to meet the growing demand of water for the city dwellers. Financed by Japan Inter-national Cooperation Agency (Jica), the work on the project began in 2010 and it went into operation in November last.

Chittagong Wasa now can supply only 210 million litres of water a day against the daily demand of 500 million litres. With the launching of this plant, the city dwellers will get 143 million litres of water (MLD) more per day which will cover about 70 percent of the total demand.

Now the Chittagong Wasa has a total of 61,717 domestic connections and 7,387 commercial and industrial connections. It could not take any project after 1987.

Speaking at the function, BSS adds, Sheikh Hasina warned that none would be spared for negligence in work.

"If anybody undertakes work, he or she must finish the work within the stipulated time by maintaining its quality ... any type of negligence in this regard won't be tolerated."