Too dirty to use

For the last two months, Yasmin Zaman, a housewife in the capital's west Rampura, has been waking up around midnight.

Hurriedly, the resident of Thai Lane of Ulon, fetches empty containers from her kitchen and sets them near the water taps in her house and waits patiently.

As soon as the clock strikes 1, she turns the taps on and starts filling up the containers one by one with water.

The 40-year-old diabetes patient has been doing this for the last two months as the water supplied by the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) has been murky with foul odour all throughout the day except from 1:00am to 4:00am.

Many of the residents claimed that the water had become contaminated by sewage due to a leak in the Wasa pipeline.

They also claimed that they were under health risk and many were already suffering from diarrhoea because of the unhealthy water.

Residents of the area said they were getting clean water only for three hours at night as most of the people remained asleep during that time and did not use bathrooms.

“We have been getting the dirty water from Wasa for almost two months, which is hampering our daily activities like cooking and taking baths. But most importantly, we are facing an acute crisis of drinking water,” said Yasmin, a house owner in the area.

She said, “At times, we have to collect water from a nearby Wasa pump by hiring rickshaw-vans. Our family expenses have gone up to around Tk 1,000 per month.”

Two out of her four tenants have already moved out due to the severe water crisis, she claimed.

Not only Yasmin, around 100 families in the area are facing similar problems.

Zahir Ahmed, a resident of the area, alleged, “Even though we are  suffering…the authorities concerned did not pay any heed to the problem. The water is just like sewage. It is unusable even for household work.”

Another resident of Ulon, Mizanur Rahman, said, “Due to the contaminated  water, all of my family members are affected by diseases such as diarrhoea and skin disease.”

Contacted, Abdur Razzak Sikdar, executive engineer of Wasa (zone 6), said they did not get any complaint regarding the issue. “But we are going to take steps as we have heard about the problem now.”