IT would be an understatement to say that water supply-related problems have increased with the full onset of the summer season in Dhaka city. It is more appropriate to describe the situation as a serious crisis. It also has different aspects. First of all, there is a great scarcity of supply of water in many areas. Added to insufficiency of supply are also other torments such as unclean water coming through the pipes. People are getting cheated from buying impure water, thinking the same is pure. Jars of the so-called fresh mineral water which are fake ones and drawn mainly from roadside taps are often sold as filtered ones. Some persons involved in such activities were caught in Dhaka city by the members of an anti-adulteration drive. Residents of the city in some areas complain bitterly that the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA)-supplied water stinks and cannot be used for the decent minimum of cleaning and other uses in households. All kinds of diseases specially intestinal infestations causing diarrhoea, hepatitis, etc., are noted to be rising from using such unclean water or drinking impure water from other sources.

The WASA authorities maintain that the surface-drawn waters supplied by them from rivers adjoining the city cannot be simply filtered up to requirements because of the excessive polluted condition of the river waters. They also say that maintenance of reliable water supply is hazarded seriously by the inoperable WASA pumps from frequent power shut-offs. The media reported that the authorities started emergency boring work for pumps at new sites to lift underground water and making generators available extensively at the existing WASA-operated pumps to maintain service during power shut-offs. The ad hoc measures may bring some comfort and relief to very badly stressed people of the city from waterless conditions. But the chronic water shortage calls for a longer term and long lasting solution and also it has to be safe for the environment.

Dhaka's water supply now preponderantly comes from underground sources and this is very risky. The continuous lifting of such water has dangerously lowered the underground water levels that have created the conditions for land subsidence. The hollowing nature of the layers of soil from pumping out underground water is adding to greater earthquake risks for the high-rise buildings. Besides, it is also questionable how sustainable would be the lifting of underground water in terms of physical as well as technical operations and costs thereof, in view of the perilously dropping levels of such waters

So, it is more than high time to implement plans to use the surface water sources around Dhaka. But the too polluted rivers cannot be used for the purpose. Plans need to be in operational stages at the fastest to bring the relatively fresher waters of the Padma and the Meghna rivers to Dhaka for supplying the same to consumers. Projects for such use of surface waters would be nothing so prohibitive in the financial sense but carrying them out would contribute to a lasting solution of the water crisis without entailing physical or environmental dangers. Furthermore, projects also need to be started at the level of the WASA and also the same should be encouraged at individual level, to conserve and use rain water.