Shawdesh Desk:

The High Court Division on Sunday directed the Dwasa to explain in two weeks why it supplies bacteria contaminated drinking water to consumers.

A study jointly conducted by icddr,b, BUET and Dhaka University found total, fecal coliforms and E.coli bacteria in unacceptable levels in  samples of water supplied by Dwasa,  six of them were collected from Dwasa’ four ground water distribution zones and two samples  collected from its surface water treatment plants at Saidabad-1 and Chandnighat.

A bench of Justice JBM Hassan and Justice Md Khairul Alam issued the directive at a hearing where icddr,b,  BUET’s Bureau of Research, Testing and Consultation and DU microbiology department presented their joint study report.

On July 24, the court would pass further orders on the issues.

Dwasa prayed for four weeks’ time to submit its explanations.

Of the four samples, one each sample was collected from Patlakhani lane of MODS Zone 1 in Gopibagh 1st Lane and 2nd Lane, from Fire Station at Sadarghat, MODS Zone 2 New Paltan Iraqi Graveyard, Kallyanpur  MODS Zone 4 at  Section-6, Block-C at Pachhim Mirpur and two  samples from Shonir Akhra, Polashpur, East Dhania MODS Zone 7.

In the samples collected from Saidabad-1 and Chandnighat exceedingly high levels of free chlorine as well as high level of tri-chloroethylamine were found by the joint study.

This might cause odor in the water supplied by Dwasa, says the report.

Saidabad plant treated extremely contaminated Sitalakhya River waters while the Chandnighat plant treated extremely contaminated Buriganga waters for supplying to consumers.

The report said that out of 34 samples collected by the committee, bacteria contamination was found in eight samples.

The report says that the samples contained  both fecal coliforms which are pathogenic and pose immediate threat to public health and e.coli bacteria.

The joint study also found heperotrophic bacteria contamination in the samples during total bacterial count tests.

Unacceptable levels of foul smell and bad taste were found in the samples due to ammonia, chlorine and chloramines contaminations in 26 water samples.

The study group recommended that steps should be taken by appropriate authorities immediately to prevent bacteria contamination in water supplied to consumers by Dwasa.

It also recommended a thorough water quality monitoring by the appropriate authorities to find out whether or not bacteria contaminated waters are supplied by Dwasa to consumers in others areas.

It recommended for providing funds and technical support for regular monitoring of the  quality of water supplied by Dwasa to all the consumers to ensure that only safe drinking water was supplied to all the consumers.

The water samples were collected from four source points, 10 supply zones, 10 vulnerable zones on the basis of consumers’ complaints and also on random from 10 other places, as the court had directed.

The local government division in a report submitted earlier informed the High Court Division that the consumers in at least 50 areas of the capital get filthy water supply from Dwasa.

The local government division also informed the court that it had prepared the report on the basis of consumers’ complaints it received through the hotline of the water utility over the past three months.

The study group comprises of DU  microbiology professor Sabita Rezwana Rahman, icddr,b physician Munirul Alam, BUET prof Badruzzaman and local government division additional secretary Zahirul Islam.

The joint study was done following a court order passed after hearing Supreme Court lawyer Tanvir Ahmed in a writ petition submitted that 80 per cent of tap water across the country was contaminated with e. coli virus.

He also submitted that he got the information from a World Bank study report.