The government has taken up a plan to harvest rain and floodwater under a Tk 25 crore project as an alternative solution to the acute water crisis in Dhaka city.
Under the project about 2.5 crore litres of safe drinking water will be produced daily by purifying rain and floodwater at a plant at Goran Chadbari in Mirpur area in the city under the management of Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa).
The treated water will also be supplied at a 20 percent cheaper rate, officials from Wasa said.
Dhaka Wasa Board Chairman Dr Gholam Mostofa told The Daily Star Rural Development Academy (RDA) in Bogra would provide the technical assistance to treat the water.
The harvesting plant will be set up within a year after the government allocates the fund, he added.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by Mahbubur Rahman, managing director of Dhaka Wasa and M Nazrul Islam, director general of RDA yesterday in this regard.
The Wasa board chairman also said, draft of the project will be sent to the planning commission soon for approval.
“Dhaka Wasa can only produce about 85 percent safe drinking water against the current demand. Utilisation of the rain and floodwater will ease the tremendous pressure on groundwater,” Mostofa said.
When there is no rain or floodwater the plant will also extract water from underground, Mostafa added.
Groundwater in Dhaka city is depleting alarmingly as the water supply is mostly dependent on groundwater. The current demand of water in Dhaka city is around 210 crore litres per day while Wasa has the capacity to produce up to 180 crore litres.
Of the total water demand, 85 percent is met by underground sources by using 491 deep tube-wells. Three surface water treatment plants in and around Dhaka supply the rest 17 percent by using water from the adjacent rivers.
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