Utility service providers make city dwellers life unbearable in this holy month of Ramzan
17 April 2023
While Dhaka is burning with extreme heat waves, its utility service providers -- such as water, electricity and gas authorities -- have failed to provide essential services to the city dwellers leading people to live in hell-like situations during this holy month of Ramzan. A news report tells us that there has been an acute water crisis in many parts of the city despite the demand for water owing to the record-high summer heat yesterday. But Dhaka WASA which is in charge of meeting the city's water demand remains nonchalant.
Moreover, amid these unbearable heat waves, the dwellers have to endure electricity outages for long hours while the gas scarcity in some areas causes more hazards to preparing food on time for people fasting for long 14 hours. The power outage officially exceeded 1,200MW on Friday midnight as summer days grew hotter, with the highest maximum day temperature crossing 400C in Dhaka on Saturday.
It seems punishing severely to live in temperatures as high as 400C in different cities, particularly in Dhaka, where crores of people live with little access to safe drinking water or even to bathe daily. A resident of Nobodoy Housing Society in the city's Mohammadpur area said they had been getting inadequate water for the last one month, while several thousand families in neighbouring areas had not been receiving water at all for the past five days. More horrible is that the Dhaka WASA did not inform them earlier of the water crisis.
On the other hand, Dhaka Electric Supply Company Ltd authority said power demand in the city broke the record in its history of 25 years on Thursday with a requirement of 1,212 MW which they failed to meet. But the govt claims record-breaking 15,304MW power generation, the highest ever on April 13, surprisingly no match with the account given in the day's power transmission report by Power Grid Company of Bangladesh. We wonder how the fact has been distorted only to satisfy the high-ups in the government.
We must say that these state organisations are not wasting people's money in the name of utility services. What we get as services from them are either scanty in amount as demanded or not usable because of quality concerns. A culture of impunity for long has made the officials there not accountable to the people. It must end soon lest the survival of Dhaka may get uncertain.
