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RESIDENTS of Dhaka city in some areas are at their wits' ends about how to cope with the stresses in their lives. It seems that there is nobody to care or anybody to pre-plan in order to cope with their rightful demands from the utility services.
Water has become like a mirage at some places of the city with people there having the idea of good water supply only in their minds to actually find trickles of it coming down their supply lines or no water at all. Most of the water pumping stations in the city are run by power supplied by the Dhaka Electric Supply Authority (DESA). The DESA's inability to maintain regular power supply to the water pumping stations means that these pumps on their turn are unable to work round the clock as they should. This situation has been persisting for long but nothing has been done over the years to improve things.
While waterlessness is turning the lives of people miserable, their woes are the greater in some areas as they are also tormented every day with long periods of load shedding. Sometimes, these areas of the city are supplied with power in name only as the voltage of the supplied power is found too low to operate different electrical appliances and even tube lights. Some people in desperation try to operate electrical appliances amid such low voltages and ruin them for good.
Looking around Dhaka, it does not seem that there is any move or concern anywhere -- where it matters -- to mitigate the sufferings of people from not having water and power.
Mamunur Rashid
Bara Maghbazar,
Dhaka
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