Sakina Bibi of Kalshi slum on Baunia embankment was waiting her turn to take a shower. Shower has a very different meaning for Sakina and others living in the slum. Only a pitcher-full of muddy water is rationed for her. Sakina felt lucky that she at least had some water.

It was 5 in the afternoon on a Friday. On Fridays, each family member of a household in the slum stays home and everyone knows that every single drop of water counts.

Sakina, 21 years of age, arrived in Dhaka two years ago from Mahishkala village, Barisal.

She is now working with a garment factory at Mirpur 11. "On work days it gets really painful. There is no one to store water if my husband or I cannot make it to home before sundown. We get water supply [at the slum] for around two or three hours," said Sakina.

"Just one tap for the entire slum and I have to compete for my turn to collect water. We usually leave our buckets or pitchers in line. We are not allowed to store an unlimited amount. We have to manage with whatever amount we get," she added.

Sakina recalls that back at her home village water was the cheapest commodity in the world. Her family used to depend on river water for household work. However, that same river that used to provide them with water, had driven them away from home. River erosion took away everything and her family headed for the capital, which they thought would be a city of hope.

In the capital they were introduced with different forms of ordeals. Sakina's mother Mariam Begum said, "Waiting in line to

fetch water and buying it is a whole new experience for us. When we first arrived, it seemed really weird. I could not believe such a thing existed."

Around 14 million people are crammed within an area of 320 square kilometres. Each year more population adds to the number. With swarming job seekers migrating from all around the country, current population growth rate in Dhaka city is around 5 percent. There are around three million slum dwellers in Dhaka with very little access to safe drinking water.

Dhaka city expands horizontally every day. Its vertical growth also reached to a frightening level as people trying to utilize every inch of available space in the city's periphery.

Demand for safe water in the capital is on the rise every year because of the increasing population. Demand for water reached up to 200 crore litres per day with a five crore litres increase per year. The Wasa can supply between 155 and 160 crore litres a day against the demand, which increases about 10 percent during the summer.

While Sakina was content with a pitcher of water, only to be able to splash her body with it in this unbearable and intense heat, somewhere else in Rupnagar slum at Mirpur, rickshaw puller Abdus Sattar feels lucky for a different reason. He said Tuesday's rain was an omen from God.

"We don't have supply water at Tong bosti. Yesterday I could not collect water. Suddenly this rain brought water for my family" he said.

Sattar collected the rainwater that came down through the pipes from his rich neighbour's five-storey building rooftop. "My three member family showered in the rain. If we had more buckets, we would have collected more," he added.

A few blocks away in Rupnagar slum, Momena, a seven-month pregnant young woman, often pays her neighbour's son Tk. 20 to fetch a container of water from a nearby washing plant.

Momena said, "We get water supply in every alternate day. Women in our slum manage somehow, but I cannot carry water in this condition. So while my husband [a CNG auto rickshaw driver] is away, I have to manage this way."

At present, 75 percent of the city is under Wasa (Water And Sewerage Authority) water supply coverage. The Wasa currently has a network of more than 2,500 kilometres of pipelines, which supplies water to its 2 lakh legal subscribers. Wasa officials suspect that there are around 50,000 illegal connections in the city that mostly provide water for slum dwelling people.

Experts say because slum dwell- ing people do not have access to safe water, illegal connection is a byproduct of their need.

"Slum dwelling people migrate to the capital from all corners of the country. They come here looking for work. Without them we will have hard time finding garment workers, domestic aids, drivers or night guards," said Professor CR Abrar, director of Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) at University of Dhaka.

"These people provide very important services to the city dwellers. We cannot ignore their contribution in our economy and their rights to safe water," he added.

"Everyday we are taking their services. We cannot expect them to live without necessities like water," Abrar said.

"At the end of the day, they are paying someone. With the amount of water they buy every day these slum dwelling people are paying more than the Wasa subscribers. The question is who gets paid," said the professor.

Experts attributed unplanned

urbanisation as the most important reason behind the current situation.

"When Wasa was created in 1963, Dhaka city was not the capital of Bangladesh. After independence, it was made the capital and then it started to grow. Growth of the city was immense comparing to its capacity," said Kazi MD Sheesh, former chief engineer, Dhaka Wasa.

"The city was planned with only two-storey buildings in mind. Migrating people were not included in the plan. Now the system cannot hold that much growth," he added.

Another reason Sheesh said was the vertical growth of the city. "If the city grew horizontally, people would not have to live in concentrated areas and the pressure of water extraction could also be distributed," he said.

Sheesh worked with Wasa for 34 years and observed that the city dwellers now are compelled to depend solely on piped water from the Wasa since "we encroached on all the important water bodies of the city. Canals used to flow inside the city. If those still existed, people could easily use the water for construction

work, factory use or for a simple car wash," Sheesh added.

Due to overexploitation of groundwater, the water table is gradually falling as well.

Excessive dependence on the groundwater has caused its level to drop in an alarming low level and it is one of the main reasons of reduced water supply of Wasa.

Studies say the water level goes lower into the ground by 2 to 3 metres every year. The water level was recorded at 26.6 metres from the surface in 1996, going down until it reached 52 metres in 2007. The level is varies in different parts of the city.

85 per cent of the Wasa water comes from the underground source of water while the remaining 15 per cent from surface water. Presently, Wasa has 454 deep tube wells and two surface water treatment plants in Saidabad and Chadnighat.

There are around 1,326 privately owned deep tube wells of various capacities apart from the ones run by Wasa. These tube wells also attribute to the current water crisis.

Experts say over exploitation of

groundwater has major environmental implications.

"If we continue to extract water from the ground at the current rate, a vacuum will be created underneath and soil profile of the city will be distorted. This will lead to subsidence as we've seen in Mexico City," said Professor Nazrul Islam, director of Centre for Urban Studies. "Buildings will sink into the ground. The city will experience cracks on the surface."

Under the current circumstances, Wasa needs to develop more surface water treatment plants, Sheesh said adding that only two surface water treatment plants in 44 years is not a good achievement.

"We need to recover the water bodies of the city and connect them with the adjacent river. And we need more water treatment plants. If we can do that then the future is not as horrible as it seems," he added.

"Wasa is a commercial organisation. Low-income people living in the slum are not legally Wasa subscribers. It is not Wasa's responsibility to supply water to them. The

crisis that you see in the slums prevail because of this," said Shahidur Rahman Pradhan, managing director of Dhaka Wasa.

Pradhan however said Wasa would soon make some arrangements for slum dwellers and they will have access to safe water.

Pradhan mentioned that the Wasa with the help of World Bank is conducting surveys about how the destitute people can have access to safe drinking water under a project named "Dhaka and Chittagong Wasa Water and Sanitation Project".

"With the help of NGOs, community-based organisations that already sell water to slum people will be legalised. May be not directly from Wasa, but slum dwelling people will be [able to be] legal paying customers," Pradhan said.