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No water for 72 hours

Supply restored as Wasa fixes line snapped during road digging

Rashidul Hasan
It was 8:15pm on Wednesday. Over 350 people, each carrying four to five empty pots, were waiting in four queues to collect drinking water from a water pump at the capital's Farmgate.
They came early to form a queue. Many others were com -ing to help them cany the water pots home in the capital's WestTejturi Bazar, Green Road, Mostafa Goli and Farmgate.
Thousands of people in the areas had been without water for over 72 hours until yesterday morning.
A Wasa engineer said the local supply line was cut when the Telegraph and Telephone Department dug a trench a few days ago.
It took three days for Wasa employees to figure out the problem. They worked overnight and finally managed to restore the supply yesterday morning.
Locals said the snap in water supply caused immense sufferings to them.
This correspondent was present at the water-pump spot in Farmgate from 8:15pm on Wednesday night to 12:30am Thursday, when 45 people including five women were still standing in the queue.
Liza, a housewife from Mostafa Goli, came to the water pump by rickshaw around 11:10pm. There was no alternative, she said adding, "What else can we do when we have been out of water for two days in a row?”
Aminur, a student living in West Tejturi Bazar, said in the last two days he had to go to his elder brother's house at Agargaon for taking shower and using the toilet. “I came here to collect drinking water,” he added.
Some people managed water by paying extra to some Wasa men with a mobile water car, said Pankaj Banerjee ofTejturi Bazar.
"The usual cost of a lorry of water is Tk 300, but a clique of Wasa men demanded Tk 700 to 800 for it. We had to pay the extra amount anyway as there was no other option,” he added.
Alim, a retired government official from Farmgate, said, "I phoned Wasa several times to inform them about the water crisis in the area. But they had nothing to say about it.”
A woman named Shamima said Wasa engineers had been to her area in Tejturi Bazar but could not locate the glitch that prevented water from flowing through pipes. "The Wasa people themselves are confused about what actually had happened in the water lines.”
Asked whether the owner of the house he lived in was taking any step to fetch water, Mihir Biswas, a resident of Farmgate, said house owners do not bother about their sufferings.
Pinky, a 15-year-old girl, told The Daily Star that she finally managed to get water from the pump after waiting over two and a half hours in the queue.
Her house owner told her that he could barely do anything since the water pump of his house could not pull water from the main water lines, she added.