Water cost rises in Khulna amid complaints of poor service

Consumers are disgruntled as the cost rose five percent within nine months

Despite various complaints about customer service, Khulna WASA is regularly increasing water prices, having raised them eight times in the last 10 years.

The company had increased the price by 10 percent in June last year. Less than nine months later, the price has been hiked again by 5 percent. This price has taken effect from Mar 1, making customers disgruntled.

According to the new price chart, residential customers will have to pay Tk 10.38 for each unit (1,000 litres) of water used. This includes service charge, demand charge and VAT. There are about 45,000 WASA customers in the city.

According to Khulna WASA, on Jan 1, 2015, the WASA board approved a new water price list at Tk 4 per unit. On Jan 1, 2016, the price of water was increased by 20 percent. Again in January 2017, the price was increased by another 20 percent. In this way, the final price was set at Tk 9.88 after eight increases. It then increased to Tk 10. 38 from Mar 1.

Advocate Kudrat-e-Khuda, former president of Khulna Sochetan Nagorik Committee, said Khulna WASA has made it a habit to increase water prices year after year.

Putting pressure on consumers by increasing water prices cannot be an effective solution, he said. Moreover, according to the Consumer Service Act, a public hearing must be held before increasing the price of services, but WASA never holds such hearings.

"WASA should reduce its costs instead of increasing water prices to earn revenues. Keep your customers comfortable. Increase services, not water prices. People are already suffering due to the price hike of essentials, including gas. WASA has increased water prices again, further pushing up the cost of living for city dwellers."

Sajjadul Islam Lenin, a resident of the city's Boyra residential area, said, "WASA has been involved in the city's water supply system for 18 years. The role that WASA is playing in the water crisis of the city's residents is inadequate. The company has yet to be able to deliver water to most of the city's people. WASA's water has not yet become drinkable. No official (of WASA) drinks this water as it is filthy."

Lenin said, "On the one hand, the price of WASA water has been increased. On the other hand, it is not possible to put WASA water into the tank of a multi-storey buildings without an electric pump. Hence, customers have to pay WASA the price of water, and then pay the electricity bills as well. Under these circumstances, the people of the city are not satisfied with WASA water."

Abdus Sobhan, a resident of Nirala, said: “A few months ago, when I found the water infused with filth, I contacted WASA. Two days later, WASA workers came and said that the contractor had damaged the water pipe while doing road repair work. I should ask the contractor, they said.”

“When I told the contractor, he asked me to tell WASA to fix it and he would pay the cost. We had to run around like this for seven to eight days. Even though we are suffering to get the service, they don’t seem to follow the rules when it comes to increasing the price of water.”

Mamata Rani Saha, who lives in Sonadanga Cross Road, is dissatisfied with the water supply from WASA. She said, "Water runs out by 8:30am. Sometimes we get it in the afternoon, sometimes we don't. Sometimes the water supply is cut off without any prior notice. We have to face difficulties because there is no alternative source.”

Mamata said most residents of the area suffer from water problems as she does. Despite paying the regular price, these customers continue to face a water crisis.

However, Khulna WASA authorities say that they are improving the quality of services. As part of this, in addition to water supply, work is under way on the sewage system in the city. Roads and alleys in the city go through frequent digging for water supply and sewage systems. At the same time, T&T does repeated repair work on telephone lines. As a result, WASA pipes are often damaged. This causes dirt and filth to mix with the water supply.

WASA claims they quickly repair those pipes and solve these problems. Moreover, now the quality of water is much better than before, the authorities say.

The city residents, however, complain that no sewage system has been built in the city according to the master plan. The wastewater from the houses mixes with the water in the drains. They say WASA has been digging holes all over the city for years to build their sewage lines, but this is not just painful for commuters, but also a waste of money. There should have been coordination.

Khulna WASA Commercial Manager M Khademul Islam said that the price of water per unit in Dhaka WASA is Tk 16.70, while the price in Chattogram WASA stands at Tk 18. In Khulna, the price of water per unit is only Tk 9.88. Taking all this into consideration, the price of water has been increased reasonably, he says.

Khulna WASA Deputy Managing Director (Finance) Jhumur Bala said, Khulna WASA's water price is lower than other cities. WASA's costs are much higher in comparison. The government's sewage law states that the price can be increased by five percent every year with the approval of the board. The price has been increased in accordance with the law.

Khulna WASA was established on Mar 2, 2008, with some programmes connected to the city corporation's water supply system. However, the key activities started from 2009. Around 2011, the organisation undertook several projects to reduce the use of groundwater.

According to the Khulna City Corporation, when Khulna WASA took over the water supply system from it, the company got 10,000 tubewells and 48 producer tubewells. At that time, about 12 percent of the city's population had access to water.

WASA authorities say that after that, 28 percent of the people came under the purview of WASA water supply in 2018, and currently, that figure has risen to 72 percent. As many as 45,200 houses in the city have water supply connections.