Public health engineering department (DPHE) has been implementing 14 water supply and sanitation improvement projects
involving more than Taka 99.94 crore to provide safe drinking water to people here.
Abujar Masudar Rahman, Superintending Engineer of DPHE, here told BSS that the projects are being implemented in different district headquarters and upazilas in almost all eight districts under the division aims at ensuring safe drinking water supply to the common people including the marginalized ones.
Among the 14 projects, installation works of 10,550 shallow tara pumps, 2,485 modified tara pumps, 2,073 shallow tube-wells, 541 rainwater harvesting
units, 184 ring-wells and 33 public toilets under the prioritized rural water supply project are progressing fast, he said.
Under the rural water supply project, 1,395 shallow tara pumps, 277 shallow tube-wells, 110 tube-wells with submersible pumps and some other water-supply infrastructures are also being installed.
Besides, 4,808 sanitary latrines and seven public toilets are being constructed under national sanitation project, Rahman said.
He said re-excavation and renovation works of six ponds while installation works of 456 wash-blocks and 69 water-sources are going on under two need- based government primary schools development projects.
Under the Taka 6.18-crore Water Supply System Improvement project in Sirajgonj Municipality, installation works of 50-kilometer pipeline, two water reservoirs, eight tube-wells and four production pumps are likely to be completed by later this year, Rahman said.
Works of setting up of 15.15-kilometer pipeline and four pump houses are also progressing under the project of Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation in municipalities located at Upazila Headquarters and Growth Centers, he added.
“We are building and installing 23-kilometer pipelines and one water purification plant under the water supply project in different district
towns,” said Engineer Rahman.
Installation works of community level 452 submersible pumps in the areas where underground water level is low are on the final stage, he said.
Submersible pumps have brought boon for the people of drought-prone Barind area here, supplying safe drinking water to the marginalized people including ethnic minority ones.
Prof Chowdhury Sarwar Jahan of Department of Geology and Mining in Rajshahi University said the initiatives will contribute a lot to reduce the acute crisis of drinking water in the drought-prone barind area.
Referring to various research findings he said there is a shortage of drinking water in the region during dry season and the problem has been becoming acute for the last couple of years.
Lifting underground water through deep tube-wells is becoming tougher during the dry season day by day while options for surface water are also very limited, he added.
The shallow water technologies become ineffective and demand for deep tube-wells has increased in the area due to rapid decline of groundwater level along with arsenic contamination in shallow aquifer in many areas, he said.
Prof Sarwar Jahan said villagers cannot collect groundwater through tube-wells as the water level goes down abnormally during dry season.
Excessive use of groundwater for irrigation and the adverse impact of climate change are putting local people in trouble, he said.
He, however, said that the submersible water supply system has become a blessing for the drought-affected people, reports BSS from Rajshahi.
