WASA to raise water tariff from Aug

The Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority is set to increase its water tariff by 5 per cent from August 1.

Dhaka WASA managing director Mohammad Taqsem A Khan on Sunday said the decision to raise the tariff had been taken to match their water tariff with the current inflation.

The increased tariff will also reduce gradually the subsidy the authority was giving at present for water supply, he added.

According to the Sub-clause 2 of Article 22 of Water Supply and Sewerage Authority Act, 1996, 'the authority, with the permission of the WASA board, could adjust the tariff to inflation by a maximum of five per cent once a year, if the maintenance expenditure rises due to inflation.'

'As per the law, the decision has been taken to raise the tariff, which will come into effect on August 1,' said Taqsem.

After the hike, the price of WASA water will be Tk 6.66 for every 1,000 litres (one unit) instead of Tk 6.34.

Taqsem said the clients of WASA in Dhaka and Narayanganj cities would have to pay the water bills for the next month according to the new tariff.

This is the fourth time WASA has increased the water price since the present government came to office. The tariff was raised once in 2009 and twice last year.

In 2009 WASA charged Tk 5.75 per unit of water, which was raised last year to Tk 6.4 in the first phase and to Tk 6.34 in the second one.

Taqsem also said that the authority was currently supplying 2.1 billion litres of water against a demand for 2.25 billion litres, with 90 per cent of the water coming from 587 deep tube-wells and 10 per cent from four water purification centres.

Source : New Age

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