Dhaka slum dwellers deprived of safe water

Representatives of community-based organisations yesterday voiced their deep concern over inadequate safe water supply to more than 4.5 million slum dwellers in the capital.

While addressing a rally at Bauaniabad in Mirpur, they said Dhaka Wasa with some development partners is now providing water rations to slum areas, which is not equitable to ensure basic human rights to safe water.

NGO Forum for Public Health and Water and Sanitation for Urban Poor (WSUP) organised the rally marking the World Water Day.

Quazi Rosy, MP, Project Manager of NGO Forum for Public Health M Nurun Nabi, World Bank Senior Consultant Abdul Motaleb, WSUP Country Programme Manager Abdus Shaheen and local leaders Qazi Zahirul Islam and Rashida Akhter addressed the rally.

Quazi Rosy said a holistic approach to using safe water is a prerequisite to addressing the scarcity of safe water.

She urged the Wasa authorities for giving more focus on ensuring water supply in the slum areas.

Referring to this year's theme on the World Water Day "Water and

Jobs", the speakers pointed out that almost half of all workers -- 1.5 billion people -- work in the water-related sectors, and nearly all the jobs depend on the availability of freshwater.