Tk 8cr water treatment plant lies unused at Santhia

SANTHIA, PABNA, Sept 17:  A modern water treatment plant built at a cost of Tk 7.61 crore in Santhia municipality to provide safe drinking water to residents has remained out of operation for nearly five years, depriving thousands of people of the facility.

The plant was built to remove harmful chemicals and pathogens from untreated groundwater and supply safe water to households. However, it has failed to serve its intended purpose due to inadequate feasibility studies and poor planning, residents said.

According to the municipality, the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) undertook the project in the 2019-20 fiscal year. It included installing deep tube wells, constructing a water treatment plant and supplying water to households through pipelines.

The project cost Tk 7.61 crore. The DPHE handed over the plant to the Santhia municipal authorities in 2021. It operated for only about three months after the handover before being shut down.

Many valuable components of the plant have already been damaged due to the prolonged closure. Residents have demanded that the authorities reopen the facility quickly to address the shortage of safe drinking water.

Santhia municipality covers 25.53 square kilometres and has a population of around 65,000 across 27 villages. About 1,165 households, or roughly 6,000 people, are connected to the piped water supply system.

Their average daily demand is around 815,500 litres. The plant has an overhead reservoir with a capacity of 250,000 litres. However, producing that amount of treated water requires extracting around 400,000 litres of groundwater.

Shafiqul Islam Ripon, a teacher and Santhia resident, said the project had failed to achieve the purpose for which the government had installed the deep tube wells and treatment plant.

“As a result, we are forced to use iron-contaminated water,” he said.

Sajib Mahmud, another resident, said the water contained so much iron that a large amount settled at the bottom if it was left standing for some time.

“We cannot properly drink or use the water for household work,” he said.

Abu Isa Shafiul Alam, Sub-Assistant Engineer (in charge) of Santhia municipality, said the amount of treated water currently stored in the overhead tank would run out within 45 minutes of supply.

“Considering customers’ demand, we would need to supply water for around three hours to meet their needs. For now, we are supplying water directly from the pumps without treatment to meet customers’ demand,” he said.

Fazle Rabbi, assistant engineer of the DPHE in Santhia, said the project had been completed a long time ago and handed over to the municipality.

“Maintenance is now the responsibility of the municipal authorities. However, we provide technical support and advice when needed,” he said.

Asif Raihan, Santhia Municipal Administrator and Assistant Commissioner (Land), said the main outcome of a water treatment project should be whether people are actually receiving safe water.

“The project was undertaken without properly assessing the entire situation. It was not designed according to our actual demand. Besides, the tank installed under the project is relatively small, making it impossible to supply treated water according to the residents’ needs,” he said.

He said higher authorities had been informed about reopening the plant and necessary measures were being taken.