Heat wave, water crisis paralyse Barisal

Water crisis due to a severe hot spell in Barisal city for the last 15 days has paralysed normal life. Erratic power supply has intensified the sufferings of the people, especially the aged and children.
The Barisal Met Office reported 36.5 degrees Celsius temperature in different parts of the city. The lowest temperature recorded is 18.4 degrees Celsius. Due to the oppressive heat, attendance in school has also come down drastically. At the same time, there has been an outbreak of diseases like fever, diarrhoea and asthma.
Water supply has been hit and there has been irregular supply for the last couple of week. Md Motaleb, Superintendent Engineer of Barisal City Corporation, said that the underground water table has gone down due to continuous high temperatures here. Disruptions in electricity supply have also hampered the pumping and supply of underground water.
Acknowledging the facts, Executive Engineer of the Water Department of BCC, Kazi Monirul Islam, said that BCC has 29 pump houses to supply water to five lakh city dwellers. The demand is 4.5 crore litres of water every day. But BCC has been able to supply only 2.5 crore litres of water per day. To manage the supply of water, BCC has started supplying a minimum of 50 thousand gallons of water. BCC has only one water tank for supplying emergency water, and citizen from different parts of the city can be seen collecting water from the water tank.
With no rainfall reported in the last two weeks, the streets of Barisal city looks deserted from 1pm to 7pm and people can be seen outdoors even at midnight when it is cooler. While youths and children cool themselves in ponds, marshes and other water bodies, the aged can be seen seeking shelter under the trees. Students of almost all the 68 school and collages of the city are the worst affected lot. Attendance in primary schools and kindergartens has reported a sharp drop in the last one week.
The Barisal Met office has recorded only 17mm rainfall in the last 18 days here. Sources in Barisal Met Office said that there is little likelihood of rain in the near future. Crops have been affected with the drying up of agricultural land.
The problems have been compounded by frequent power cuts and low voltage due to a national grid line fault. The West Zone Power Distribution Company (WZPDC) said that Barisal has a demand of about 120MW of power in peak hours, but the supply from the national grid is only 70MW of power.

Heat wave, water crisis paralyse Barisal

Water crisis due to a severe hot spell in Barisal city for the last 15 days has paralysed normal life. Erratic power supply has intensified the sufferings of the people, especially the aged and children. The Barisal Met Office reported 36.5 degrees Celsius temperature in different parts of the city. The lowest temperature recorded is 18.4 degrees Celsius. Due to the oppressive heat, attendance in school has also come down drastically. At the same time, there has been an outbreak of diseases like fever, diarrhoea and asthma. Water supply has been hit and there has been irregular supply for the last couple of week. Md Motaleb, Superintendent Engineer of Barisal City Corporation, said that the underground water table has gone down due to continuous high temperatures here. Disruptions in electricity supply have also hampered the pumping and supply of underground water. Acknowledging the facts, Executive Engineer of the Water Department of BCC, Kazi Monirul Islam, said that BCC has 29 pump houses to supply water to five lakh city dwellers. The demand is 4.5 crore litres of water every day. But BCC has been able to supply only 2.5 crore litres of water per day. To manage the supply of water, BCC has started supplying a minimum of 50 thousand gallons of water. BCC has only one water tank for supplying emergency water, and citizen from different parts of the city can be seen collecting water from the water tank. With no rainfall reported in the last two weeks, the streets of Barisal city looks deserted from 1pm to 7pm and people can be seen outdoors even at midnight when it is cooler. While youths and children cool themselves in ponds, marshes and other water bodies, the aged can be seen seeking shelter under the trees. Students of almost all the 68 school and collages of the city are the worst affected lot. Attendance in primary schools and kindergartens has reported a sharp drop in the last one week. The Barisal Met office has recorded only 17mm rainfall in the last 18 days here. Sources in Barisal Met Office said that there is little likelihood of rain in the near future. Crops have been affected with the drying up of agricultural land. The problems have been compounded by frequent power cuts and low voltage due to a national grid line fault. The West Zone Power Distribution Company (WZPDC) said that Barisal has a demand of about 120MW of power in peak hours, but the supply from the national grid is only 70MW of power.