Water supply resumes at CU dorms following student protest

Water supply finally resumed at Chittagong University's dormitories yesterday, a day after residential students demonstrated on the campus demanding that the management takes steps to tackle the acute water shortage lingering for at least one week.

The dormitories are getting good flow of water from the afternoon but the water is bearing patches of rubbish, complained students.

With summer hitting hard, the water supply at the dormitories got intermittent. But for the last one week, there was almost no water at most of the hostels.

As a result, some 400 students of Shahjalal Hall who have been struggling in this scorching heat for last one month with little water in only some blocks of the three-storey building padlocked the hall office for 11:00am to 12:00pm on Monday demanding immediate water supply.

Meanwhile, agitating students of the three female dormitories -- Pritilota, Khaleda Zia and Shamsunnahar halls -- locked the university's main entrance on Monday night, brought out a procession and staged demonstration in Zero Point area on the campus.

Mirazul Islam, a residential student of Alaol Hall, neither could bathe nor could wash his clothes for the last five days due to water scarcity. He had to buy water for his daily needs.

Like him, around 3,500 residential students of AF Rahman, Abdur Rab, Aloal and Suhrawardy halls also struggled with acute water scarcity. On the other hand, frequent power cuts and summer heat made their daily life even harder, alleged students and teachers.

“For last one month, I had to go outside every morning to freshen up myself”, said Imtiaz Ovi, residential student of Shahjalal hall. 

"In this hot summer, it is impossible to pass even a day without water. But we had not got water for the last one week even though we submitted a complaint to the authorities concerned”, said Syeda Airin Sultana, residential student of Pritilota Hall. 

Md Ainan Hossain, residential student of AF Rahman Hall, alleged that the first, second and third floor did not have a single drop of water in last few days. Only little water was found on the ground floor but for a specific period.

CU Chief Engineer Md Abu Sayeed Hossain said due to power shortage and fluctuating voltage in the national grid, they were unable to even start the water pump on the campus which caused the water crisis.

Yesterday, the university authorities hired two generators following which the water supply resumed at the dormitories. They will run the generators unless they execute their decision, which was taken yesterday, to buy a generator for the campus for Tk 50 lakh.

About rubbish patches in the water, the engineer said those would go away by today.