Water tariffs under the Dhaka WASA are unlikely to be hiked immediately, its chairman told the FE on Tuesday.
The DWASA board has put on hold the proposed 5.0 per cent tariff hike of water for residential and commercial use this year taking into consideration ongoing pandemic situation.
"The proposal to hike water tariff has been put on hold temporarily by the board considering the sufferings of people due to covid pandemic. We will observe a few more days," said Dhaka WASA Board chairman Dr Golam Mostofa.
The increased price was supposed to be effective from July 01.
The prices of each unit (1,000 litres) of water was proposed Tk 15.18 for residential use and Tk 42 for commercial use. The present prices are Tk 14.46 and Tk 40 respectively.
A meeting of DWASA board was held on Tuesday where the board declined to increase water price at this point of time. The DWASA MD sent the proposal giving his consent to hike watere price.
DWASA raised water price last year during pandemic by 25 per cent which suddenly increased the living cost of people during covid.
In some cases, water tariff exceeds the electricity bill.
When his comment was sought, DWASA chairman said the WASA authority wants to minimise the gap of water production cost and supply cost to the users. Now the production cost is Tk 26-27 and the supply cost Tk 14-15.
The government should not always pay subsidy for the water, he added.
As per the WASA Act, 1996, Dhaka Wasa can increase the water tariff by 5.0 per cent.
The water tariff was previously increased on 01 September, 2019, when it was set at Tk 10.50 for residential and Tk 33.60 for commercial use.
Experts said, DWASA should form a regulatory authority like Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) before raising price of water.
BERC always holds public hearing before implementing any increased price of electricity. DWASA should do the same, they added.
