Some people occupying the high seats in Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority (DWASA), apparently, are not interested in taking into cognizance the paying capacity of most consumers.
That is why they, in September last, sent a proposal to the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives seeking an eighty per cent hike in water tariff for domestic and commercial consumers in one go.
Fortunately, the ministry, according to a media report, has not accepted the proposal as yet. Rather it has sought explanations in support of the tariff-hike proposal.
If the LGRD ministry turns out to be as indulgent as it used to be in the past in the matter of DWASA's proposals for water tariff hike, the consumers would be hit hard.
The DWASA, reportedly, has justified its tariff-hike proposal saying that it needed higher revenue earnings to meet the increase in its operational expenditures and the costs of development projects.
The DWASA is one of the state-owned entities that are not liked by most people. A survey conducted by the Transparency International, Bangladesh (TIB) last year found that nearly 38 per cent of the consumers in Dhaka are not satisfied with the services the DWASA rendered. Nearly 45 of the consumers said they did not get adequate piped water and half of them said they got unclean water.
The incident in which a resident of city's Jurain area accompanied by the members of his family had come to DWASA's Head Office at Karwaan Bazar carrying a bottle of foul-smelling piped water is still fresh in the memory of city consumers. It turned out to be a hot topic of discussion, courtesy of the media. However, that was all. There has not been any notable change or improvement in the DWASA's performance since then.
The DWASA Act of 1991 allows the Authority to increase the water tariff by 5.0 per cent annually to make adjustment with inflation and it has been religiously implementing it. Violating that provision, it had increased water tariff once by 22 per cent in 2016 .
In 2009, the DWASA's per unit water tariff was Tk 5.5 for domestic consumers. That tariff is now Tk11.57. The DWASA has now proposed to raise the tariff to Tk 20 for domestic consumers and for the commercial consumers it wants to increase the tariff to Tk 65 from the existing Tk 37.04.
The efficiency level of the DWASA, be it the management of city's water supply system or operations of sewerage and drainage system, has often come under questions.
Most part of the city still does not have any sewerage system. The DWASA's failure to solve the water-logging problem has also become proverbial.
The DWASA has been claiming that the cost of production of water it supplies is far more than the average tariff. One has reasons to be sceptical about the claim. Water it supplies is derived from natural sources. A small part of water it supplies in Dhaka city is treated and that involves some cost. But most part of water is lifted from underground using pumps and the same is diverted to supply lines directly.
The annual hike in water tariff at the rate of 5.0 per cent is proving to be a burden on the poor consumers. Any increase beyond that will be highly irrational, to say the least. Rather the DWASA top notches should stop widespread pilferage of water that has been taking place in connivance with its field level officials.
