Water management in Dhaka faces numerous challenges such as flooding, poor service quality, groundwater depletion, inadequate sanitation, polluted river water, unplanned urban development, and the existence of large slums. Residents of Dhaka have one of the lowest water tariffs in the world, which limits the utility's capacity to invest. The utility in charge of water and sanitation in Dhaka, Dhaka WASA, addresses these challenges with a number of measures.
Dhaka WASA said in 2011 that it achieved a continuous water supply 24 hours per day 7 days a week, an increase in revenues so that operating costs are more than covered, and a reduction of water losses from 53% in 2003 to 29% in 2010.Taqsem Khan (2011) The performance challenges of Dhaka WASA, in Global Water Intelligence: Focusing on performance, Global Water Summit 2011, p. 50-52. In the future, DWASA plans massive investment to replace dwindling groundwater resources with treated surface water from less polluted rivers located up to 160 km from the city. In 2011, Bangladesh's capital development authority, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha, made rainwater harvesting for new houses mandatory in an effort to address water scarcity and reduce flooding.
History The first piped drinking water system in Dhaka was established in 1874 by Khwaja Abdul Ghani, the aristocrat that ruled Dhaka under the British colonial authorities. The system was fed by a water treatment plant in Chadnighat near the bank of the river Buriganga. After independence from the British, in 1948 the Department of Public Health Engineering of the Pakistani government was in charge of drinking water supply as well as sanitary sewers and storm-water drainage. Dhaka WASA (Water Supply & Sewerage Authority) was established in 1963. In 1989, the storm-water drainage system of Dhaka city was handed over to DWASA. In 1990, the service area was extended to include Narayanganj city. In the early 1990s, the World Bank had said it would only provide a loan for water supply in Dhaka if the utility would enter into a public-private partnership with an international water company. When this was rejected, it asked that revenue billing and collection should be outsourced to a private company for at least one service area on a pilot basis, and that DWASA should be transformed into a commercially oriented utility. The outsourcing in one service area was done in 1997, but the pilot project was not deemed successful and was stopped. DWASA's activities have been reorganised by the Dhaka WASA Act, 1996, which transformed DWASA into a service-oriented commercial organisation.
Service area The service area of DWASA covers more than 360 square km, with a population of about 12 million. It extends from Mirpur and Uttara in the North to Narayanganj in the South. The Buriganga River and many canals flow through the city. Tropical vegetation and moist soil characterise the land, which is flat. The elevation of Greater Dhaka is 2 to 13 meters above the mean sea level, and most of the urbanised areas are at elevations of 6 to 8 metres. This leaves Dhaka susceptible to flooding during the monsoon seasons owing to heavy rainfall and cyclones.
Challenges Water management in Dhaka faces numerous challenges such as flooding, poor service quality, groundwater depletion, inadequate sanitation, polluted river water, unplanned urban development, and the existence of large slums where more than one third of its population lives. Every year during the dry season, people demonstrate in Dhaka's streets, demanding an uninterrupted supply of clean water. In 2010, Bangladesh's government had to even deploy troops to guard water pumps following angry protests.
Flooding
Bangladesh has been repeatedly exposed to severe flooding. Dhaka was particularly hit by the floods of 1970, 1974, 1980, 1987, 1988, 1996, 1998, 2004, 2007 and 2009, some of which, such as the ones in 1988 and 1998, were catastrophic with flood levels of up to 4.5m in parts of the city. During the 1998 flood, about 56 percent of the city was inundated, including most of the eastern and 23 percent of the western parts of the city. During non-catastrophic floods, some streets are inundated for up to 60 cm for several days. Flooding in Dhaka is caused by high rainfall in the city and/or by flooding from the surrounding rivers and canals. The western and most densely settled part of Dhaka is protected from river flooding by raised roads and an encircling embankment built after the 1988 flood. The eastern part of the city where most of the expansion takes place consists of low-lying floodplains that are submerged during the monsoon season. When high rainfall coincides with a high water level in the river, stormwater cannot be naturally evacuated through the drainage system. Retention areas are supposed to mitigate flooding, and pumping stations have been set up to evacuate floodwater. However, encroachment of natural runoff detention areas, lack of maintenance of storm sewers and pumps, and a lack of co-ordination among responsible organisations hamper efforts at flood management. Four organisations are in charge of various aspects of stormwater management in Dhaka: The Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) is in charge of operating regulators and gates in the embankment; DWASA is in charge of the larger open drainage canals and pipes; Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) operates smaller underground and surface drains; and the Capital Development Authority (RAJUK) constructs underground roadside drainage lines during the construction of new roads. Stormwater pumping stations of various sizes are operated by BWDB, DWASA and the Dkaha City Corporation. After the catastrophic 1998 flood caused by high river levels, it turned out that there was neither an operating policy nor person assigned to operate an important regulator, the Rampura Regulator. Many gates that were supposed to be closed to keep the water from the rising rivers out had not been closed. Furthermore, in 2002 it was noted that the existing earthen embankment was unstable and cracking in large sections. Also, construction of embankments through low-lying areas without providing adequate drainage facilities had caused internal flooding.
Poor service quality According to background information for a representative survey conducted for the Asian Development Bank in 2005, out of the 12 million inhabitants of Dhaka, the Dhaka water utility provided drinking water for 9 million through house connections, as well as for an additional 600,000 through 1700 standpipes and 100,000 through bulk connections. Bulk connections are located in slums and are known as "Water Points". NGOs are responsible for the installation, operation, maintenance as well as collection of revenues from these connections. Only 39% of the residential customers surveyed reported having a continuous water supply. On average, customers received water 15 hours per day. 75% of residential and 85% of non-residential customers reported that they had water storage facilities at their premises. 62% of residential customers reported their water quality as good or fair, i.e., not smelly or dirty. Only 10% of residential customers reported drinking water directly from the tap. By far the most common treatment method was boiling. 75% of the domestic and 64% of the non-domestic households were willing to pay more for better services.
The authors of the survey note a number of discrepancies between utility data and the results of the survey. The utility indicated at the time that 70% of its customers had continuous supply, that 63% had meters and that 97% of meters were in working condition. However, the survey indicated that 42% had continuous supply, that 76% were metered, and that only 77% of meters were in working condition.
Groundwater overexploitation
82% of the city's water supply is abstracted from groundwater through 577 deep tube wells, while four relatively small surface water treatment plants provide the remaining 18%. Groundwater levels are dropping two to three metres every year. The city's water table has sunk by 50 metres in the past four decades, and the closest underground water is now over 60 meters below ground level.Institute for Water Modelling, 2009 The Asian Development Bank estimated in 2007 that by 2015 a severe supply shortage would occur if the utility did not reduce groundwater abstraction. Nevertheless, DWASA announced in 2012 that it will develop a new wellfield with 46 wells providing 150,000 cubic meters of water per day at a cost of US$63 million, of which US$45 million will be financed by the government of South Korea.OOSKAnews, 19 October 2012, reporting about a decision by Bangladesh's Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) on 16 October 2012.
Inadequate sanitation In Dhaka, nearly one-third of domestic effluents do not receive any kind of treatment. About 38% of the population is covered by a sewerage system. There is one wastewater treatment plant with a capacity of 120,000 m3 per day. About 30% of the population uses conventional septic tanks, and another 15% uses bucket and pit latrines. During the rainy season, sewage overflows are common.
Other issues Low tariffs and cost recovery Residents of Dhaka enjoy one of the lowest water tariffs in the world. The Executive Head of DWASA lists provision of water at low cost as one of the achievements of the utility. However, low revenues limit the utility's capacity to make a higher contribution to investments.
According to DWASA's official website, in November 2011 the metered residential tariff was 6.6 Taka (US$0.09) per cubic meter. For households with sewer connections the tariff was 15.5 Taka (US$0.21) per cubic meter. Unmetered residential water connections were billed 128 Takas (US$1.72) per month. The commercial, industrial and institutional tariffs are more than three times higher.DWASA:Water tariffs. Retrieved 17 October 2011 Total revenues were the equivalent of about US$70 million per annum in 2010 and, according to DWASA management, cover about 25% more than the operating costs of the utility (operating ratio of 0.79).
However, a recent study shows that for domestic water use slum dwellers in Dhaka Metropolitan Area are paying about 7 to 14 times higher than the legal connection holders covered by DWASA. Slum dwellers are spending about 12 to 15% of their average monthly income for domestic water supply, whereas in most of the countries, legal connection holders are spending less than 5% of their average monthly income for the same purpose.
Overstaffing
A common indicator of whether water utilities are overstaffed is the ratio of employees per 1,000 connections. Using this indicator, DWASA appears to be overstaffed: According to DWASA, the utility had 3,566 employees and served 325,717 connections in 2013, resulting in 10.9 employees per 1,000 connections. This figure is 30% higher than the average of 18 major Asian cities, which was 8.3 in 2001 according to the Asian Development Bank. However, in Dhaka there are more than 40 inhabitants per connection, an unusually high ratio. Thus, for a city of 12 million the utility is not necessarily overstaffed. For example, the city of Berlin, Germany, also had 3,948 employees in 2009, but served less than 4 million people.Joerg Simon, Berliner Wasserbetriebe: Delivering performance amidst austerity, in:Global Water Summit 2011, p. 39 Given low salaries in Bangladesh, it is also appropriate to use more labour-intensive approaches than in richer countries, and the staffing level should thus probably not be considered to be overly high.
Achievements and response to challenges