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City dwellers clamour for water

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
The city dwellers voiced strong resentment over acute water crisis, no increase in water supply for over a decade and its uneven distribution.
The speakers at World Water Day programmes in the city on Saturday said the Chittagong WASA is beset with massive irregularities and corruption and has failed to overcome the acute water crisis.
They demanded immediate and permanent solution to the crisis and ensure proper and equitable supply of water.
They called for making WASA, Chittagong, accountable. They urged the authorities concerned to give responsibility of WASA to City Corporation for quick implementation of the projects pending for years. They suggested creation of proposed water reservoirs and envisaging ways and means to use rain water as alternative to drinking water.
The speakers at a roundtable discussion on "water crisis in the
port city and its solution" criticised WASA for failure in discharging its responsibility.
The water generation of WASA, Chittagong, could not be raised since 1988. Its capacity rose to 4 million gallons daily and it was producing around 3.6 million gallons till date. The demand of water is now around 12 million gallons per day, they said.
The speakers resented that a huge area had been acquired for proposed reservoirs at Fateyabad for decades while the Madunaghat project could not be started as a note of the ministry took over a year. The note was required before sending the project papers to the Italian firm.
The roundtable was jointly organised by the Bengali daily the Dainik Jugantor and ActionAid Bangladesh at Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE). They said WASA, Ctg, was rather beset with corruption.
It was not giving the subscribers meter connections. It harassed them through over-billing to show
revenue in an "unethical way".
The influential people control and use street hydrants of the city commercially depriving the common people of water.
Slum people in the city do not get drinking water following this.
Besides, the water crisis even forced some intended foreign investors fly away elsewhere from Chittagong Export Processing Zone, they said.
The speakers also said that control by City Corporation could play a significant role in even distribution of water as well.
Prof Moinul Islam moderated the discussion. Former WASA, Ctg, chairman Sultan Mahmud Chowdhury, former superintendent engineer AKM Fazlullah, CPA chief engineer Dr. Shafayet Hossain Khan, and former CUJ president Mohammad Idris spoke. ActionAid Bangladesh country director Nasreen Haq, Pro-VC of BGC Trust University Prof Noorjahan Bhuiyan, Prof Mahbubul Haq, Engineer Shafiqul Islam, Jugantor Chittagong Bureau
chief Jasim Chowdhury Sabuj, engineer Subhash Barua and Shamsunnahar Rahman Paran attended the discussion among others.
The speakers at a discussion meeting organised by Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) demanded comprehensive plans for solving the water crisis of the city and earning foreign currencies through selling drinking water in foreign vessels at Chittagong port.
They called for initiative for creation of water reservoirs and catchments at the vales along the range of hills stretching from Sitakundu to Faujderhat and at coastal areas to preserve water in the rainy season.
Mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury said mismanagement caused the crisis of water.
He said shallow tube-wells failed to get water in many places giving rise to the crisis here due to extraction of underground water by deep tube-wells in an unplanned way.
He proposed creation of water reservoirs to solve the crisis.
CCC Chief Executive Officer Abul Bashar presided over the meeting. Prof Shafiq Hyder Chowdhury of Zoology Department of Chittagong University was present as special guest.
Speakers at a meeting organised by Chittagong WASA to exchange views with the subscribers accused the authorities of irregularities and mismanagement. The meeting with WASA, Ctg, chairman Azizur Rahman in the chair, the consumers said the water supply was also not being distributed properly.
The consumers said that the authority was not providing the subscribers with new meters properly though around 4000 pieces of meters were lying idle at store. It was not replacing the ones that went out of order either.
In absence of meters the authorities, in the name of billing on the basis of average or usual consumption, was charging several times higher prices and showing quantity more than the real consumption, they said. WASA, Ctg, chairman Azizur Rahman said despite limitation they were making efforts to increase production of water.