Formation of committee ordered to test wasa water

Staff Correspondent: The High Court (HC) on Tuesday asked the authorities concerned to form a five-member committee to examine the standard of water supplied by Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) in Dhaka.

The committee has been asked to submit a report before the court in two months.

An HC bench of Justice JBM Hassan and Justice MD Khairul Alam came up with the order following a writ petition.

The committee has been asked to keep five representatives from Local Government, Rural Development (LGRD) Ministry, Bureau of Research, Testing and Consultation (BRTC) of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Control, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B), Faculty of Pharmacy of Dhaka University and Faculty of DU Biological Sciences.

The court also issued a rule asking the authorities concerned to explain why their failure and inaction to supply safe water for the people should not be declared illegal.

Eight people including secretaries from the Ministry of Local Government and Health Ministry, director general of the Health Directorate and managing director (MD) of Wasa have been made respondents to the rule.

The respondents will have to reply to the rule within four weeks.

On October 14, Supreme Court lawyer Advocate Tanvir Ahmed filed the writ petition seeking necessary order of the authorities to supply safe water for the people.

In the petition, he attached a report of World Bank published by different media on October 12. The report said 98 percent of Bangladesh's population has access to water from technologically-improved sources, but E. coli contamination was found present in 80 percent of household tap-water across the country.


risingbd/Dhaka/Nov 6, 2018/Mahidi/AI