THE diarrhoeal diseases are spreading thick and fast in the capital city. And to have an idea of what is really happening on the ground, it will suffice to pay a visit to the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B). The number and frequency of admissions of patients in the hospital are increasing by the day.
There's no denying the fact that the people across the country become vulnerable to the waterborne diseases, especially during early summer and when the floodwater recedes, every year. And it is the dirty water of the ponds and the rivers that causes this epidemic among the rural people. But why are these diseases spreading so fast in this capital city, where people depend on the Water and Sewerage Authority (Wasa)-supplied water, which is supposed to be clean and free from pathogenic substances and organisms? To add to their woes, amid gas scarcity, many people cannot boil the water to free it from pathogens. Not surprisingly, most of the patients at the ICCDR,B put the blame squarely on the dirty and foul smelling water from the Wasa's pipelines.
This is a very serious complaint against the service providing body, which, to all intents and purposes, is inexcusably failing in its responsibility to supply clean and safe water to the city's residents.
Though the Wasa people have reportedly claimed that the water they supply is clean because 87 percent of it comes from groundwater, the facts are quite to the contrary. In the same report, the source in Wasa admitted to the possibility of leaks in its pipelines, which might have been behind the dirty water supplied to the residents. But what have they done so far to identify the leaks and plug those on an urgent basis to save the city-dwellers from the serious health hazards?
All these call for a complete overhaul of the water-supply network coupled with the setting up of more water treatment plants. Evidently, this is a time-consuming proposition, but the need for potable water is of most immediate concern at the moment. So, what do we do about it?
One option is to invest in building an adequate fleet of lorries and press those into immediate service to reach water to the scarcity-hit zones.
We know the government has taken some ad hoc steps, whose positive effects are yet to be felt. Surely, we need to do more.