No germs in Wasa water!
Dhaka Wasa managing director said he gets foul-smelling tap water at home too but assured that it was harmless.
Taqsem A Khan, managing director of Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority, said this at Jatiya Press Club yesterday amid growing concerns of over two crore residents of the capital struggling to get safe drinking water.
"The supply water in my residence at Naya Paltan also has some bad smell. But it is not a matter of concern as it is drinkable and the smell is due to excessive use of chlorine," he said.
But in the same breath, Taqsem urged city dwellers to boil Wasa water before drinking.
He also said no harmful germs were found in Wasa water in the capital's 10 areas from where a majority of diarrhoea patients have been visiting the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b).
Attending a dialogue organised by Dhaka Utility Reporters Association (DURA), Taqsem said it was challenging for Wasa to provide safe drinking water to a population increasing day by day.
"We did not get any germs or E. coli in the water [that are] harmful for the human body," he claimed, adding that they tested water after collecting it from the source, pipeline and water tanks of houses.
He said they tested water of those areas based on the information from the icddr,b last month.
Experts, however, brushed off his claim.
"Such claims are baseless. Diarrhoea is a waterborne disease. If there are many patients in an area at a time, it has to be understood that a single source [of water] is causing the disease," Dr Ahmed Abu Saleh, a professor of microbiology at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, told The Daily Star yesterday.
Earlier, icddr,b officials said they were receiving a majority of diarrhoea patients from 10 areas of the capital.
Those areas include Commissioner Road and Suti Khalpur in Dholpur, Kazla Bridge School Goli and Gobindropur in Jatrabari, Mollapara and Foyedabad in Dakshinkhan, Baro Biga Mor in Badda, Rayer Bazar, and West Jurain Railgate near the Shyampur Bridge.
"Despite not finding harmful germs, we have directed to increase the amount of chlorine in the water in those areas to destroy the germs, if any," Taqsem told reporters.
While referring to the bad smell, he said it was due to severe pollution of the Shitalakkhya river, which needs to be pre-treated before it is treated at Sayedabad Treatment Plant.
He claimed, "Ninety-five percent of Wasa's supply water is pure. But in five to eight percent areas, water sometimes becomes contaminated due to leakage of old pipelines.
"We repair those pipes after getting complaints. When a portion of a pipeline leaks, then, for instance, contaminated water enters at least 10 houses," he said.
He said water becomes contaminated in three ways -- at source, in the supply line and in overhead tanks and water reservoirs of households.
"As we do not know where the five percent water is contaminated, we are advising everyone to boil the supply water before drinking," Taqsem said.
On March 16 this year, the number of diarrhoea patients admitted at the icddr,b per day surpassed the 1,000-mark for the first time in the past 60 years. In the past week till Monday, an average of 8,986 diarrhoea patients were admitted there per day.
Earlier on April 20, 2019, Taqsem boasted that Wasa water "is 100 percent pure" while also admitting that sometimes he himself boils the water at his home.
"I fail to understand why people would burn gas to boil supply water that is 100 percent pure and safe," Taqsem A Khan told a press conference, organised to contest a Transparency International Bangladesh report that painted a dismal picture of Wasa water.
On April 17, the TIB published its year-long study, which 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.
Wasa has around 8,000-km of supply lines -- around 3,000 km of which consist of derelict 150-year-old pipes -- for around 3.9 lakh connections in its 360 square-kilometre service area. It can produce 270 to 275 crore litres of water daily. Of this, 34 percent is surface water with five water treatment plants and the rest is extracted from underground with 906 deep tube wells, according to an official of Wasa.
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