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crore rehabilitation project -Improvement of Sewerage System in Dhaka City -- were held back after disagreement over KAFCO. But WASA officials are optimistic about securing the funds from Japan through a debt relief grant (DRG).

WASA officials said one-third of the city -- mostly south and old Dhaka -- is now covered by the Pagla sewerage treatment plant.

But Uttara, Baridhara, Badda, Rampura, parts of Kalyanpur, Mohammadpur, and the cantonment areas are yet to come under the sewer network.

The North Dhaka (east) sewerage project is supposed to cover these places. With its completion, 75 per cent of the city area will come under the sewer network.

Residents of many areas have linked their sewer lines with the surface drains, built to carry rain water only, in the absence of the sewer network. This pollutes the rivers and canals around the city.

Under the sewerage system improvement project, one of the two trunk lines of Pagla sewerage plant is supposed to be rehabilitated.

The Pagla plant has a capacity to treat 1.20 lakh cubic metres of sewer daily, but only 50 to 55 thousand meters goes into it owing to leakage and damage in one of the trunk lines in different areas including Tejgaon to Bashabo and Jurain to Pagla. As a result, 65 to 70 thousand cubic metres of sewer flows into the city's water-bodies including the Buriganga.

If it continues, say WASA experts, water pollution will assume unmanageable proportions in near future.