MR Amin, Chittagong

Residents of 40 precent areas in Chattagram city are allegedly not getting water despite having connections with Chattagram Wasa.

Every day on an average 9 million liters of water is needed. The government organization in charge of water and sewage management in Chittagong is accounting by showing the system lossIn the city,. Residents of 40 percent areas are crying for WASA water.

According to the MIS report of Chittagong WASA last June, 25 to 28 percent of the total water supplied is system loss. WASA has been identifying water lost from cysts as non-revenue water. According to this, the daily non-revenue water amount is more or less 9 crore liters.

As for Wasar, currently 50 crore liters of water are being produced daily. Two and a half million liters of produced water is wasted every day due to leakage in pipes. WASA engineers claimed that the remaining 6.5 crore liters of water is wasted through theft, illegal connections, meter manipulation.

And the company is not getting these water bills. WASA claims that the organization costs 27 rupees to produce 1000 liters of water. The cost of production has been determined by including the chemicals used in water treatment, electricity consumption, labor wages and salaries. As such, the company is losing crores of rupees.

Meanwhile, Dhaka, Rajshahi and Khulna Wasa have less 'system loss' than Chittagong. Dhaka WASA system loss is 20 percent, Rajshahi WASA 29 percent and Khulna WASA 24 percent. Chittagong WASA has increased the price of water four times in the last five years without reducing the system loss. The last extension was in September 2022. At present, the price of 1000 liters of residential water is 18 taka, commercial 37 taka.

The complaints of the customers are that Chittagong WASA officials and employees are making money by selling crores of liters of water showing systase loss. Under whose supervision there are at least 300 stolen pump houses in Chittagong metropolis. WASA has no steps to stop them. Again, the average annual cost to repair the leak is shown to be more than crores of rupees. Which is going into the pockets of officials and employees.

KM Mostafizul Kabir, a resident of Pahartali Bank Colony area and a former Bangladesh Bank official, said that we got water only twice from October 1 to 12. Every month he suffers from this water. But billions of liters of water are going down the drain due to leakage in the pipe.

WASA Managing Director (MD) AKM Fazlullah claimed that various initiatives have been taken to prevent leakage in the connection pipe. He said that the leakage is due to various reasons. But less than before. Apart from this, new pipelines have been laid. Leakage is decreasing in the new line.

However, Iftekhar Ullah, the executive engineer of Mod-1, admitted that there was a leak in the new pipe as well. He said that heavy vehicles are moving on the road. Along with this, various development projects have to be implemented. The pipe is damaged and leaking.

He said, apart from paying crores of rupees for the wasted water due to leakage, crores of rupees have to be paid for repairs. 6 crore 34 lakh rupees have been spent in last five years to repair leakages. Out of this, 1 crore 5 lakh 89 thousand taka has been spent on repair of only 1500 leaks in Mod-3 in five years.

Two board members of WASA complained that only 1.5 thousand leaks were shown to cost 1 crore 5 lakh 89 thousand taka. In fact, the repair of these leaks should not cost more than 50 to 60 lakh rupees.

Incidentally, Chittagong WASA, which started its journey in 1963, currently supplies water throughout the city through a 1,200 km pipeline. Out of this, 891 km of pipelines have been laid from 2009 to 2023. The rest of the line is still old. However, both the new and old pipelines are said to be leaking.

According to the agency's records, in 2009, Chittagong supplied water to an area of 660 km across Wasa Nagar. Since then new projects have increased the length of the pipeline. Karnaphuli water supply project started in 2009. 68 km pipeline was laid through that project. Then in January 2011, the Chittagong Water Supply Development and Sewerage Project started. 136 km pipeline was laid.

Karnaphuli Water Supply Project (Phase-II) started in 2013. The work was completed last year. Maximum 687.52 kilometers of pipelines have been laid in this project. According to the agency, 10,468 leaks have occurred in these pipes in the last five years.

Muhammad Rashidul Hasan, dean of the architecture and planning faculty of Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology, thinks that there is a deficiency in WASA's plan to prevent wastage of water through leakage. He said, about 1000 million liters of water is wasted every year. The customer is directly affected by this. If this amount of water can be saved, there is no need to increase the price of water. But the authorities do not look at it. On the other hand, allegations of illegal connection in the name of system loss are very old. As a result, waste will not be reduced if the technology is not fully utilized.

Chief Engineer of Chittagong Wasa said in this regard. Maqsud Alam said that the installation of 3000 smart meters in Chandgaon and Agrabad areas of the city is underway. The city still has about 300 km of old pipelines. A project of 4 thousand 400 crore rupees has been taken up with the financing of the World Bank to lay the new pipeline. Once the installation of new pipelines and smart meters is completed, the system losses will come down to a very tolerable level.

According to Chittagong Wasa sources, Chittagong Wasa has three treatment plants for water purification. 50 crore liters of water is purified daily from these three projects. Out of this, 140 million liters from Karnaphuli Water Supply Project-1, 240 million liters from Karnaphuli Water Supply Project-2, 700 million liters from Madunaghat Water Treatment Plant Project. Besides, Chittagong WASA supplies 5 to 6 crore liters of water daily from WASA deep tube wells through ground water treatment plant. However, if the demand for water is low, water is not extracted through deep tube wells.

Jasmine Sultana Paru, President of Chittagong City, Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB), a national institution that protects the interests of consumers, said that the leakage of the Chittagong WASA pipeline will never be fixed. They are selling some water in the name of leakage. Additional bills can also be billed in the name of leak repair. Billions of rupees are going into the pockets of executives.

WASA engineers feel that if water wastage due to leakage and theft through pump houses were prevented, the supply could have been maintained in a large part of the city. Especially in Baklia, Halishahar, North and South Patenga, Pahartali, Baghgona, Akbar Shah Oxygen and other areas of the city, there is water shortage throughout the year. Customers in these areas sometimes do not get water even for one day in a week.