DHAKA: The High Court on Wednesday (July 24) directed Dhaka Wasa to take immediate steps to supply pure water in the capital.

“If they (Wasa) can solve the problem, then well. We need water. Pure water… We want pure water',” the HC said.

The bench of Justice JBM Hassan and Justice Md Khairul Alam made the remark while hearing a writ petition filed by Wasa.

The court fixed July 30 for further hearing on this issue after hearing time petition for submitting a report on contamination of water with bacteria in different areas of the capital.

According to the report placed by Wasa before the HC on July 7, through the attorney general’s office, the water supplied by and eight out of its 34 samples collected from Wasa’s 10 MODS Zones is contaminated with harmful bacteria.

As per an earlier order of the court, the local government ministry tested the water at the laboratories of BUET (Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology) and ICDDR’B (International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh). 

As per the combined report, in the water collected from different area were found to be contaminated with Coliform bacteria.

The combined report states that the committee collected samples from 5 MODS zones of Dhaka Wasa from 5 different places as per random sampling and where there were allegations of contamination and pollution. Bacterial contamination was detected in eight of these samples.
 
On May 16, the state, on behalf of the LGRD ministry, filed a report before the court on the test of water.
According to the report, the list of complaints of contaminated water received by Dhaka Wasa’s Link (Hotline) in the last three months analyzed and found that the trend of contaminated water in 59 areas under 10 zones is high.

BDST: 1511 HRS, JULY 24, 2019
RS/SMS