DWASA shares views with SAARC teams
An opinion exchange meeting on Sharing Experience of Dhaka WASAs Turn Around Programme with DMA Approach NRW Reduction with SAARC countries was held at a hotel in the capital yesterday, says a press release. Presided over by Engnieer Taqsem A Khan, managing director of Dhaka Water Supply Sewerage Authority (DWASA), the meeting was attended by Deputy Residence Representative of Asian Development Bank (ADB) Oleg Tonkonojenkov as guest of honour. Among others, officials of Rajasthan Urban Infrastructure Development Project (RUIDP), under Water Utility of India and National Water Supply Drainage Board (NWSDB) of Sri Lanka were also present at the meeting. Oleg Tonkonojenkov in his speech appreciated the advancement of Dhaka WASA through introducing District Metering Area (DMA) approach, which remarkably reduced system loss ensuring uninterrupted water supply in different areas of Dhaka city. He also lauded the initiative of Dhaka WASA bringing slum dwellers under legal water connection. Afterwards, Engineer Taqsem A Khan in his speech said its a tough job to supply uninterrupted water to more than one and half crores dwellers of Dhaka city.
But with some effective and time-bound initiatives Dhaka WASA has not only been able to meet the increasing demand of water in Dhaka city, but also become capable of producing surplus water. Due to environmental aspect, Dhaka WASA is shifting to surface water source reducing dependency on underground water. Thats why three mega surface water supply projects have already been taken at the cost of about Tk12,000 crores.
Purifying waters of the Padma and Meghna rivers, a total of 140 crore liters of water would be supplied daily after completion of that three projects, he said.
Taqsem Khan mentioned that various donor agencies were coming forward to invest in Dhaka WASA due to various successes by the agencys transparent and dynamic management. He also said the representatives of India and Sri Lanka have come here to experience the success stories of Dhaka WASA and hoped that they would be able to apply that experience in their respective countries.
The representatives of the aforesaid two countries have come to Dhaka to know the success of Dhaka WASA with the DMA approach that include remarkable reduction of system loss, uninterrupted and quality water supply and others.
Among DWASA officials, Deputy Managing Director (Operation Maintenance) SDM Quamrul Alam Chowdhury, Deputy Managing Director (Research, Planning Development) Md Serajuddin, Dhaka Water Supply Sector Development Project Director Md Shahid Uddin, RUIDP Project Director Naveen Mahajan and Additional Director General of Sri Lankan Planning Ministry S.S. Mudalige were present on the occasion.
