City dwellers on streets for safe Wasa water
A section of Dhaka dwellers demonstrated yesterday demanding safe Wasa water and resignation of its managing director Taqsem A Khan for what they said was his failure to carry out his responsibilities properly.
Holding placards, several dozen people, under the banner of Wasar Nirapod Pani Andolon (Movement for Safe Wasa Water), marched through roads from Jurain to Shanir Akhra.
During the nearly two-hour protest from around 10:30am, the city dwellers distributed leaflets, including a five-point demand, among those living in the areas.
They asked for compensation for those who suffered from various diseases caused by the unsafe Wasa water. The other demands include providing Wasa consumers with refunds and punishing those responsible for supplying polluted water for years.
Speaking there, Mizanur Rahman, convener of the platform that organised the demonstration, said their protests would continue until the demands were met.
“We don’t want to have impure and contaminated tap water. We don’t want the hassle of boiling water for purification,” he said.
“People are falling ill every day after drinking Wasa water … we will not pay any Wasa bill until it ensures safe water for consumers,” he said.
Abdullah Al-Mamun, a businessman in Jurain, demanded that Taqsem resigns as the Wasa MD, saying he could not ensure clean water while being at the helm of the water supplier.
As a result, many have to collect drinking water from local mosques and madrasas, he added.
Yesterday’s protests came a day after Dhaka Wasa revealed that its water is polluted in 57 city areas because of broken-down supply lines.
It made the admission in a report submitted before the High Court.
The local government and rural development ministry submitted the report on behalf of Wasa, as per the court’s order delivered on Monday.
On April 23, in a unique protest, residents of Jurain brought lemons, a bag of sugar, and a jar of Jurain’s murky tap water to the Wasa Bhaban in Karwan Bazar to “treat” Taqsem with sherbet.
The small group of Jurain went to the Wasa office in protest of Taqsem A Khan’s April 20 claim that Wasa water “is 100 percent pure,” while also admitting that sometimes he himself boils the water at his home.
Taqsem had made the comments responding to a report of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), came out on April 17 that found that 91 percent Wasa subscribers have to boil the supply water to make it drinkable and, in the process, they burn gas worth Tk 332 crore a year.
Findings also show that nearly 45 percent subscribers do not get the desired amount of water while about 35 percent complain of poor-quality water throughout the year.
Contacted on Thursday, the Wasa MD claimed their water was “100 percent pure” at source, but some 16 percent of it gets contaminated inside the supply lines that are in bad shape at many places.
Asked about his earlier claim about the quality of Wasa water, he said it was a mistake to say that Wasa water was completely safe and pure from source to consumers’ homes.
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