The perennial water crisis in the port city of Chittagong shows no sign of abatement with frequent power failures and falling underground water level affecting both production and supply when the demand is very high in the month of Ramadan.

The Water and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) has the capacity to produce 200 million litres of water every day, but due to power outage, the production has declined as much as 10 percent on some days adding to the miseries of the city dwellers.

The water produced by Wasa comes from over 90 deep tube wells and from the Mohora and Kalurghat water treatment plants, and this output can only meet 40 percent of the demand of the city, which is around 500 million litres a day.

Chief engineer of Wasa, Chittagong Md Abdul Karim Chowdhury told The

Daily Star that although the demand had been increasing over the past five years, Wasa was boring new tube wells to increase production and maintain the 40 percent level during this period.

"Another problem we are facing is that the underground water table is continuously sinking making extraction more time-consuming and expensive. ”

Five years ago, he said, the water levels at Kalurghat and Halishahar were 70 and 150 feet, which had now gone down to 150and350feet respectively.

Coupled with this, power outage has made the problem worse yet, and aggrieved consumers sometimes staged demonstrations in front of the Wasa office demanding regular supply of water.

Chowdhury said he personally met the chief engineer of the Power Development Board and requested him to ensure power supply in the daytime so that water extraction is not hindered.

A local official ofWasa at Agrabad said that because of power failure, production of water from deep tube wells had dwindled, and due to low pressure of water, it was becoming difficult to carry water from the treatment plants to various parts of the city.

The Wasa chief engineer also admitted that in some areas, where water is supplied on specific days of the week, they were unable to maintain the schedule, adding to the anguish and exasperation of the consumers.

Moreover, the multi-storied apartment buildings have their own deep tube wells, and at this time of the year, especially with the rainfall this monsoon being less than normal, the water level goes further down and the ordinary people have to suffer immensely.

Chowdhury said, "With our limited capacity, we are trying our best to ensure that all the consumers get at least some water every day.”