BCC's power bill dues leave residents in water crisis

An acute water crisis has long been bashing the lives of Barisal city residents with the authorities concerned failing to maintain water supply to its stakeholders. The crisis has been compounded by a lack of power supply to the newly constructed two surface water treatment plants (SWTPs), six months after their construction.

A rough and tumble between Barisal City Corporation (BCC) and West Zone Power Distribution Company (WZPDCO) over the payment of arrears and future bills has wrought  this stagnant situation.

Manirul Alam Swapan, executive engineer of the BCC's water supply department, said over 500,000 city dwellers need 4.5 crore litres of water a day, but now BCC has the capacity to produce a maximum of 2.55 crore litres and supply 1.5 crore litres.

At present, BCC can supply 30 percent of water demanded by the city residents. The capacity could increase to 75 percent if the two SWTPs start operations, Swapan added.

Luthfar Rahman, sub-assistant engineer of Public Health Department's (PHED) Barisal Regional Office, said 95 percent of the construction work of two SWTPs and transmission lines at Beltala and Rupatali in the city, with a total capacity of supplying 3.2 crore litres of water per day from Kitankhola River, has been completed.

SM Shohidul Alam, executive engineer of PHED Barisal Office, said they had set a target to start supplying water from the new SWTPs, constructed at a cost of Tk 50 crore, sometime between June and August last year.

But they delayed starting operations as the electric lines to the plants were yet to be connected, the official added.

"An electricity bill worth Tk 22 crore is due against BCC, and we asked to pay the arrears in instalments, but they failed," said Tarikul Islam, executive engineer of division 1 under WZPDCO Barisal Office.

"If they do not pay the arrears, new electricity connections to SWTPs will not be given as per the rules," the WZPDCO official added.

BCC Mayor Ahsan Habib Kamal said he had already paid a good portion of the arrears, adding that there were unresolved issues of Tk 13 crore electricity bills which his predecessor Shawkat Hossain Hiron left unpaid.

The BCC is, however, trying its best to clear those dues, Kamal said.

"Now that summer is fast approaching, we are awfully suffering from an intense water crisis. It is therefore very urgent to start producing water from the two plants," said Akkas Hossain, a cultural personality in the city.