Water Treatment Plant: Wasa project not paying enough dividends
Three years ago, Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Dhaka Wasa) inaugurated the Padma-Jashaldia water-treatment plant to bring treated water of Padma to Dhaka.
But the plant has supplied a significantly low amount of water when its actual capacity is taken into account.
Such ambitious but under-performing projects of Wasa are one of the main reasons behind the ever-increasing burden of water tariff, according to experts.
Wasa recently proposed to increase its tariff by at least 25 percent for residential connections and by 19 percent for commercial connections.
Right now, the residential tariff is Tk 15.18 per unit (1,000 litre) and commercial tariff Tk 42.
Dhaka Wasa spent around Tk 3,670 crore to build the water-treatment plant, inaugurated in June 2019, to reduce dependency on groundwater.
But Wasa failed to provide water according to its actual capacity, as it has yet to set up the project's main service lines.
Wasa is officially showing the plant's water production to be around 28 crore litres per day, against its 45-crore-litre capacity. But the actual production is one-third of the capacity, according to Wasa sources.
Although Wasa is trying to reduce dependency on groundwater and is taking initiatives to set up surface-water treatment plants, it also increased its deep tube-wells to 1,029 (including those on standby.
In 2009, that number was 560.
Wishing anonymity, an official of Wasa said that "a project to strengthen the existing water supply distribution to Dhaka City to cope with production of Padma Water Treatment Plant Phase I" -- worth around Tk 523 crore -- is still seeking foreign funds to build a new network of pipelines.
As per the monthly water-production report of Dhaka Wasa in May 2020, average production of the plant was 148 million litres per day (mld).
But the November 2021 report showed 270 mld, although it did not significantly improve distribution lines within this period.
The plant's capacity is 450 mld.
According to experts, the diameter of the pipeline that starts from Jashaldia treatment plant and ends in Old Dhaka, is 2,000 millimetres. But the line is then connected to Sayedabad water-treatment plant's distribution lines, which have a diameter of 600 mm. This obstructs the flow.
This is one of the main reasons behind getting one-third of the water, they said.
"It is not possible to supply more than one-third of the water due to small-diameter pipelines. We will get full production after setting up of the proposed 2,000-mm-diameter distribution lines from Mitford to Shyamoli via Mohammadpur," said Rafiqul Islam Khan, a contractor of Wasa who was involved with a survey to connect around 3-kilometre-long lines from Mitford to English Road for the project.
Contacted, AKM Shahid Uddin, director (technical) of Wasa, backed Wasa's official figures and said they could not start working on the main supply line, as they are still seeking foreign funds.
He said they could raise production up to 2,900 mld for the plant, as they have made connections with existing lines at a minimum of five points between Mitford and English Road.
Shahidul said pipelines from Mitford to English Road are between 600 to 1,000 mm in diameter.
He said they are improving production by replacing old pipelines in Old Dhaka and targeting to deliver water according to actual capacity.
Adil Mohammad Khan, former general secretary of Bangladesh Institute of Planners, said many Wasa projects are highly ambitious, but residents are not getting full benefits, as authorities fail to provide necessary utility infrastructure.
Adil said the government should monitor the projects strictly to determine their necessity.
Wasa is increasing its production cost by bringing water from Padma and Meghna rivers, even though there are four rivers just around the capital.
They will have to focus on using the water of Buriganga, Shitalakhya and other surrounding rivers. This will reduce costs, and the government will have to reduce pollution of the rivers.
There is a lot of corruption inside Wasa, which spill onto its projects, and so project costs are overestimated. The government will have to stop such corruption. This will reduce costs by 20 percent, he added.