INTRODUCTION

Dhaka City is expanding day by day, but distribution of water supply is not equal in different

areas of Dhaka city. So we often se situations of severe water crisis in different areas of the

Mega city. In my research I tried to investigate how water is utilized in Dhaka City and

through the research I tried to identify possible ways to overcome the situation.

Water is an essential element that we need everyday. Urban people are particularly dependent

on the water supply agency WASA of Bangladesh Government, as it’s not possible to depend

on natural and resource like ponds, spring, rivers, and tube well. I worked on present status of

water supply, utilization, problems and possible steps that can be taken to meet the challenge

of providing adequate and safe water for a mega city like Dhaka.

As it is already mentioned that Dhaka is a densely populated city, it is very difficult to

provide adequate water to all of the residents. We often see situations like people in different

areas are taking illegal connections of water. There are other factors like too much misuse,

poor monitoring system which are considered to be important contributors in water crisis.

WASA, the only government authorized water supplying agency, is not playing its role

properly regarding issues such as lick from pipes, miscalculations of bills, etc. Throughout

the research I tried to identify how water can be used effectively with the current available

supply, different steps to improve the situation.

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 BACKGROUND
This section of my research consists with secondary data and information. This part is

completely based on Internet reports and information gathered from different journal, books,

newspaper. Here I tried to identify different causes and solutions that we can follow.

The first water supply system was introduced in Dhaka by the British in 1888 under the

jurisdiction of the district civil surgeon at Chandighat. The Chandnighat plant treating water

from the Buriganga River has the capacity of supplying 3.9 crore litres of treated water to

supply mainly in the localities under Lalbagh Police Station and Kotwali Police Station.

However, after so many years the treatment plant is unable to produce according to its normal

capacity. Moreover, the source of water for the plant, the Buriganga River, has become

biologically dead because of ongoing water pollution caused by industrial and domestic

sources. The conventional treatment plant, which uses only lime and chlorine for treatment,

cannot neutralize the existing pollutants in river water, many of which may cause serious

health hazards. That is why people get sticky straw-colored water in the areas where water

from the Chandnighat is supplied.

The first deep-water pump was installed in Dhaka in 1949. Till the end of 1960s the water

supply in Dhaka was almost surface-water system based. Dhaka WASA was formed in 1963,

being separated from the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE), with the aim of

giving better service to its city dwellers. It inherited only 33 deep pumps from DPHE. But, to

meet the ever increasing demand of the city dwellers of one of the fastest growing mega-

cities in the world, Dhaka Wasa without having any long-term vision, kept on installing deep-

water pumps on a crisis by crisis basis. (See appendix)

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The inadequate supply of water by the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority

(WASA) has put residents of many areas in the city in a miserable condition. But at the same

time a huge quantity of WASA water is going down the drain every day without being of any

use. Official sources told that the WASA has recently been facing a shortage of more than 30

crore litres of water daily against the demand in the area under its jurisdiction. On the other

hand, the WASA is losing about 50 crore litres of water a day due to the so-called system

loss.

Water crisis is acute at present in the old part of the city and in Khilgaon, Rampura, Mirpur,

Agargaon, and Azimpur areas. The daily chores of life, including cooking, cleaning and

washing, not to mention the bathing of the residents in these areas, are being disrupted

because of inadequate water supply. Many hotels are coping with their demand by purchasing

water from the WASA’s water vans. People in some areas are also being compelled to buy

water to meet their daily needs. The WASA officials said that, out of their 20 water vans, 15

to 16 would operate in the city during the summer to respond to the need of the people.

At present the WASA is losing about 40 per cent of its total production in the name of system

loss. Through illegal connections, a huge quantity of water is going down the drain due to

leaks in old and dilapidated transmission pipes and street hydrants. More than 50 per cent of

the water is lost due to system loss. The remaining water is either stolen or consumed by

people. The leaks in pipes are so much, and nobody has an accurate estimate about how much

water is seeping through them.

The severe water crisis over the years has forced some of the residents of the areas like

Gulshan, Banani, Baridhara and Dhanmondi to sink deep tubewell on their own. But the

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lower middle class people and slum dwellers can’t afford to do that as it costs TK. 1.5 to 2

lakhs. The residents of Dhaka Cantonment and Dhaka University areas do not take water

from WASA as they have pumping houses of their own. WASA sources agree that a

considerable quantity of WASA water is used for construction and industrial purposes.

Corruption in different level of WASA has become a common seen. Government is allocating

huge amount of money for different projects but ultimately the money is not used effectively

for the corruption, false budgeting of engineering section. Some WASA officials could not

work though they want to because very often they face restrictions from Dhaka City

Corporation regarding digging the roads for establishing underground pipes. Recently the

situation is changing. WASA has established 38 new deep tube wells in different areas of the

city. The situation getting improves but again it depends how well the authority can monitor

the situation. (Interview)

HYPOTHESIS
Dhaka City is an overpopulated city. It’s difficult to provide adequate water supply to all of

the residence. But overpopulation is not the only cause of water crisis. Though it contributes

to a great extend, there are some other factors.

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Firstly, Dhaka WASA is the only water supplying agency in Dhaka. This organization is

responsible for billing to the consumers. I found that the billing on water is based on the

number of connections that goes to a house, not on the basis of unit usage like electricity.

This procedure allows residents to use supplied water without any control or check, which

ultimately leads to great misuse. In the slum areas of the country residents don’t even bother

for a legal connection, thus they don’t need to think about payments. Corruption in WASA

authority is also stimulating the practices. As there is no other water supplying agencies

general people don’t have enough say on them.

The authority is always so reluctant about repairing the licked pipes, which is a very common

seen, that people are bound to give bribes to get the work done. Dhaka WASA management

and monitoring policy are also very much dissatisfying.

We can overcome the situation by mobilization Dhaka WASA more. WASA can be handed

over to the private sector or more organizations can be assigned to serve the same purpose.

Foreign consultants can be hired to direct works properly and engineering section should be

monitored more strictly.

AREAS TO FOCUS
To conduct the research I have focused in the following areas to from which I gathered

information about what is actually causing the problem and by analyzing those areas I tried to

end up with some possible solutions. The areas I focused are-

δ Major causes of deficit

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 δ Monitoring policy of Dhaka WASA

δ Billing system- Whether its encouraging or discouraging misuse

δ Water supply and sanitation system in slum areas

δ Government monitoring over the different departments of WASA

δ How the system of water supply works

δ The effect of privatizing WASA

δ Why to establish another water supplying agency

δ Corruption in the authority

δ Possible solutions to overcome the problem

METHODOLOGY
To get the proper insight about the misusing behavior of water, I used both primary and

secondary sources to collect the data.

 Primary Source

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  Questionnaire Survey

30 questionnaires

 Interview

 Secondary Source

 Online

 Newspaper

According to our course instructor’s guideline, I surveyed 30 people who are mainly

households. I did not include service holders because they don’t have any idea about the daily

necessity of water for household tasks.

I took interview of Mr. Nurul Huda, commercial manager of Dhaka WASA. It helped me a

lot to identify WASA role and limitation on the crisis.

To get the detail information about water misuses, I took help from different websites and

different newspapers (The Independent, The Daily Star and Dhaka Calling). From the

newspapers and websites I gathered secondary data which helped me to know about the

misuse of water in Dhaka city and so forth.

DATA PRESENTATION
In this section the primary data are discussed literally and expressed graphically

through the assistance of bar graphs, pie charts, etc. the answers to the questions are

numbered correspondingly.

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 Response
Question A B C D
1 5 8 4 13
2 4 7 9 10
3 1 3 8 17
4 4 8 10 8
5 8 15 4 3
6 13 11 5 1
7 1 0 9 20
8 25 5 0 0
9 12 6 8 4
10 18 0 10 2

Survey Questionnaire Analysis

Q1: What is causing water deficit in different areas in Dhaka city?

Response

Response
Poor Leak from All of the
Question Overpopulation
Monitoring pipes above
1 5 8 4 13

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Here about 43% of the respondents chose "D". That is "all of the above" option. Others

household (57%) choose the other three, overpopulation, poor monitoring, leakage from the

pipes. These respondents are the occasional sufferers. But the first group who choose “All of

the above option" are frequent sufferer. Water crisis is so obvious and frequent in this area

that they just can't make one specific reason for the problem.

Q2: WASA is supplying adequate water supply to meet your daily requirements.

Response

Response
Strongly Strongly
Question Agree Disagree
Agree Disagree
2 4 7 9 10

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34% of respondents which is highest number of respondents strongly disagree with the view

that Dhaka WASA is not supplying adequate water for to support their current need. I found

that these respondents are the residents of densely populated low-income areas of Dhaka, like

Maniknagar, Tikatoli, Gopibaag etc. Most of them have slums nearby their house where

people use to take illegal connections from the pipelines.

Other groups, who disagree with the view, are from the areas as like Hatirpul, Green road etc.

where pumps are not established in adequate quantity.

Furthermore, 23% respondents agree that they find adequate water which is supplied from the

Dhaka WASA and rest 13% are strongly agree with this term, because these two types

respondent areas are Dhanmondi, Banani, Gulsan etc. where most of the houses are

apartment.

Q3: You are satisfied with the billing system of WASA -

Response

Response
Question Strongly Agree Disagree Strongly

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 Agree Disagree
3 1 3 8 17

A very funny thing I find from this question is while everyone is dissatisfied with WASA's

monitoring, supplying facilities, very few like is dissatisfied with the prevailing billing

system. Their positive response helped me too identify one of the important causes for water

crisis in Dhaka City,

WASA bills its consumers according to the number of connections they have in their houses.

There is a fixed charge for each connection, which is also very little. As residents do not need

to pay on the basis of their usage as they do in the case electricity or telephone, they don’t

bother for using water in a reserve way.

Q4: If there is any leakage from the pipelines in your area, how many days the authority

usually takes to repair?

Response

Response
More Than 21
Question 1-2 Days 8-14 Days 14-21 Days
Days
4 4 8 10 8

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10 out of 30 respondents agree that Dhaka WASA takes 14 to more than 21 days to fix any

leak that occurs from supplying pipes. So if a pipe is left for at least 10 days for leaking

continuously, then it is very normal that the area will suffer from water shortage situation.

This is the case of the areas like Maniknagar and Gopibaag. Respondents say WASA

authority sometimes shows so much reluctancy that sometimes the residents need to pay

bribe. This reluctancy not only causes great wastage of water but also makes the condition of

roads and footpaths unhygienic as they go under water that is supposed to go to the houses.

Q5: The number of water reservoirs established by the authority in your area-

Response

Response
Question 3 2 1 No Reservoirs
5 8 15 4 3

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The question was about the number of water reservoirs from which the supplied water from

WASA is pumped to the houses. In most of the areas it is 2. In areas like Dhanmondi,

Mohammadpur, Banani, Gulsan etc. we observe highest number of reservoirs. So these areas

are less sufferers of water crisis. But in most cases of Dhaka City it is 2. But in some area like

Mugda, there is no reservoir at all. So the water comes through long connected pipes from

reservoirs of other areas. These pipes leak very often.

Q6: How many slums do you have in your area or nearby?

Response

Response
More than
Question 1-2 2-3 3-4
4
6 13 11 5 1

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Here majority responded that they have 1-2 slums. There is only one responded who has

more than 4 slums. By analyzing their responses I found that, respondents who have more

slums nearby are more sufferers of the crisis.

Slum people usually don’t apply for legal connections. A person has to go through a long

process to get an approval of water connection in his resident. After getting the approval he

has to ace WASA's reluctancy of establishing a pump and pipes. After facing all these things

he might get able to have a connection. Slum people usually leave in very unhygienic

condition and the slums of Dhaka are very much densely populated. Most of the slums are

illegally situated. So it's really a hard job for slum people to a legal connection of water. Thus

they usually establish pipes through the pipes of WASA. It creates huge pressure on the

reservoir of that area and the supply goes down. Again as slum people don’t go through

sophisticated mechanical process while connecting pipes, so licks often occur.

Q7: What is your opinion about the morning system of water connections in nearest

slum?

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Response

Response
Below
Question Better Average Poor
Average
7 1 0 9 20

Residents suffer greatly for the illegal activities of slum people. If they go with complain to

the authority, they come to observe after a long time. Again they go through a long

procedure. Sometimes the illegal connections are cut off, but within a week they are building

again. Sometimes the authority overlooks the situation for the compensation or bribe given by

slum people. They even prepare false documents of the connections.

By getting effected from these incidents, most of the respondents tick for the poor monitoring

system of WASA.

Q8: Establishing more deep water Tube well can help preventing slum people from

taking illegal water connection.

Response

Response
Question Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree
8 25 5 0 0

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Most the respondents tick for strongly agree option. As its really difficult to prevent slum

people from taking illegal connections, they think a better way to improve the situation can

establishing deep water tube well in the densely populated areas, specially in the slum areas.

It will help to reduce pressure from the reservoirs in which water is supplied for fixed number

of legal connections. As the water bill is very low, slum people would not find it difficult to

pay for the purpose.

Q9: There should be more supplying agencies beside WASA.

Response

Response
Question Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree
9 12 6 8 4

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There is different view regarding this issue. 12 out 30 strongly agree with the view and 6 out

of 30 actually agree it. They think that, if there is more water supplying agencies, then the

load of supporting a huge population will be released from WASA. It will be possible for the

organizations to monitor effectively. The response to the problems like pipe leakage or illegal

activities will be quicker.

But some criticize this point. They don’t find it cost effective to establish another agency that

will look after the water supply and sanitation for a mega city like Dhaka. This is reflected in

their view that 8 out of 30 respondents don’t agree with a view of establishing another water

supply agency.

Q10: WASA should be privatized.

Response

Response
Strongly
Question Strongly Agree Agree Disagree
Disagree
10 18 0 10 2

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Majority of the respondents (18 out of 30) agrees with the point that WASA should be

privatized. Again establishing another water supplying agency with same equipment to

support a city need is very difficult and will not be cost effective. Under the circumstances, if

WASA is privatized then situation will improve. Many private companies will be eager to

establish more facilities to improve the situation at their own cost. They can earn get a huge

returns if they can just slightly increase the bill. Monitoring will also be improved if private

corporations control the agency, as there is less risk of corruption.

INTERVIEWS
For my research purpose, I took interview from Mr. Mr. Nurul Huda, formal commercial

manager of Dhaka WASA. He was in this profession for more than four years. He shared

some of his vast experience with me. He said the situation of water crisis is very critical and

it is getting worse day by day. He thought it has many reasons and among them:

1. The water level under the ground is getting lower. So the WASA don’t get water

properly and for that reason people don’t get water properly.

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 2. People waste more water.

3. Over population in Dhaka city.

4. In some place huge apartments build up and these apartments have huge Reservoir or

Tanks. These tanks drag all the water in that area and for that reason another areas

people don’t get water.

He also thinks that slums in Dhaka city misuse more water. Furthermore, he said that

educated people are conscious about the water misuse, but yet they do this mistake again and

again. For example, when they shave, we often open our tab.

He suggests that People should reserve water at the home because it will help them when

crisis happen. He argued that because of lack our Government policy, WASA shouldn’t

improve. Their mechanism shouldn’t improve. So the technology didn’t change. So people

have no other way rather than reserve. He thinks that people who work for WASA are

corrupted people.

To solve this issue, he suggested that Government is now more concern about this issue.

They try to improve the monitoring system. They try to make consciousness among the

people for the water. They also try to cut the illegal lines and they try to establish reservoirs

in different affected areas.

SUMMARY OF RESEARCH FINDINGS

The summary of the research findings are given below:

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 • Most of the respondents are not satisfied of the service of the Dhaka WASA where

minimum respondent who lives in Dhanmondi, Banani and Gulsan, are satisfied of the

service.

• Majority of the respondent complains that Dhaka WASA don’t supply adequate water

supply to meet your daily requirements.

• WASA bills its consumers according to the number of connections they have in their

houses. There is a fixed charge for each connection. However, WASA don’t want to

know that is there any illegal connection in between these connection which is most

respondent complain.

• WASA don’t monitor their pipelines. They only monitor the billing system. Their

monitoring system of pipelines is not computerized and for that they don’t have any

indicator to find the leakage. That is why, sometimes we find here and there leakage

in the middle of the road which makes those areas flooded.

• From the Research we find that the area where has slums, are most affected by water

crisis.

• Most of the respondents want more supplying agencies beside WASA, because

the load of supporting a huge population will be released from WASA and

it will be monitored effectively.

• From the research, we find that Majority of the respondents agrees with the

point that WASA should be privatized because establishing privatized

company, it can be cost effective than opening a new agency.

• Finally, employees of Dhaka WASA are corrupted people.

RECOMMENDATION
I have some specific suggestions regarding this issue:

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• First of all, we need to remove corruption from the Water supply sector. The

employee of this sector should be punctual and responsible to do their duty.

• Our government should invest more in WASA sector to set up more water pump in

different affected areas

• Dhaka is a densely populated city, it is very difficult to provide adequate water to all

of the residents. For that reason, government should shift huge people from Dhaka

city to another place through the help of the Law, otherwise different collusion can be

happen.

• Government should take initiative to reduce illegal connections and system loss,

which is happening mainly due to lack of transparency and accountability, monitoring

and professional sincerity.

• To ensure water supply from ground and surface water sources, the government may

need to stop unplanned residential and industrial development, concrete surface

development and improve waste and sewage disposal system. Proper industrial waste

and sewage treatment may protect water resources of the city.

• \Most of the residential areas including Dhanmondi, Gulshan, Baridhara, Uttara, and

Banani are less affected by water crisis because it is designated residential areas. So

To ensure water supply from ground and surface water sources, the government may

need to stop unplanned residential. By this way government can reduce water crisis.

• High rise buildings waste huge water. So it is necessary to stop to build high rise

buildings.

• Deep Tube well can reduce illegal connections of water supply. So it can be

establishes in the slum areas.

• We have plenty of rainfall during the rainy season and even in summer season. This

rain water can be used properly to ease the burden of groundwater. All the buildings

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 from middle to high-rise must have a system to pass all the rainwater fall on the roofs

to the underground water reservoir of each building. When all the middle and high-

rise building will use the rainwater, a huge amount of WASA water will be saved.

• Arranging recycling of water is one of the best solutions.

• To meet the present crisis, water needs to be brought from the rivers far away from

the city. To purify this water small amount of chlorine and other chemicals will be

needed. .And then it will be distributed among the worst affected parts of the city by

water Lorries.

• Many trees should be planted in the city wherever possible to make the environment

water friendly. All the lakes of the city must be cleaned and re-excavated to hold more

water. If the water of all the lakes of Dhaka city can be made pure, it will not only

help keep our water level reasonable but also the poorest people can have bath there.

• At last, it is necessary to create concern among the people of Bangladesh, otherwise

all above solutions cannot be helpful to remove crisis of water.

LIMITATIONS
o Sample size was only 30. This amount of sample size is not actually enough to

prove the credibility of my research. If I got more time then I would able to increase

my sample size, which would give more concrete results.

o Some people while interviewing couldn’t believe me whether I am actually

doing a research paper or using it for commercial purpose.

o Time constraint was also a great challenge to encounter.

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CONCLUSION
Water means life for the human body, and it is the lifeline for any civilization to take root and

flourish. All known civilizations grew around a water source to support life, and to give life

to its economy. With change in time, the economic role of water has changed, taking a

different but vital facet. But its role in sustaining life, for which there is no substitute, has

remained, and turned out to be indispensable because of higher demand from the growing

population across the globe.

Allah said, “The person who waste a thing, is a brother of Eblish”. So we have to use our

natural resource, water, effectively and we should also maintain sustainability. From my

research, I can say that the effective way to remove the water crisis is to make consciousness

among the people. However, government can perform the main role for making the

consciousness. If the government charge high bill, then people can use water effectively.

Moreover, government should have to make equal opportunity of jobs in other major city like

Chittagong, Khulna, Barisal etc, so that people will not come to Dhaka city. Thus I think we

can save our natural resource like water.

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