Water stagnation and water crisis will not soon be solved until people start to use surface water, Water Supply and Sewerage Authority managing director Taqsem A Khan said on Monday.
The utility service provider chief said this at an exchange of views on preparation for the upcoming Ramadan and initiatives to solve water stagnation in the ongoing monsoon at WASA Bhaban.
Informing that WASA was planning to reduce dependence on groundwater sources to 30 per cent from the existing 77 per cent and shift the dependence to surface water sources by 70 per cent by 2020, he said, ‘We must go for surface water. There is no alternative to this.’
He said that rain water cannot go to ground level for lack of greeneries, excessive pavements, encroachment of rivers and canals, which creates water stagnation in the city roads.
The extension work of Sayedabad water plant phase-2 is going on, which will generate around 22.5 crore litre more a day by December 2012, he said about their initiative to address the existing water crisis.
About Ramadan preparation, the WASA managing director said they would take some initiatives to address crisis of drinking water during Ramadan.
Water lorries, tractors and generators will remain active while water will be supplied through trolleys and vans during iftar and sehri hours, Taqsem said.
Regarding their monsoon initiatives, he said WASA had installed two permanent pumps and 14 temporary pumps in different places including Rampura and Janapath.
Currently Dhaka WASA is producing around 210-220 crore litres of water daily against a demand for 210-230 crore litres from its 622 deep tubewells and four water treatment plants, he said.
DWASA chief engineer SDM Quamrul Islam Chowdhury, deputy managing director (administration) Mahbubur Rahman and acting deputy managing director (finance) Uttam Kuman Roy were also present at the progarmme.
At present DWASA has 3,10,314 connections.