An all-pervasive electricity crisis and interruption in gas supply coupled with water shortages have made Dhaka a city of misery and the crises are set to worsen with days becoming increasingly drier and hotter over the remainder of the month.
In parts of the capital Dhaka, the crises have hit people all at the same time, making them suffer in intense heat amid frequent power cuts with not enough water even for a short bath. Many undertake odious journeys navigating almost impenetrable city traffic under the scorching sun to travel to relatives just to take a bath.
The gas supply shortages continue to burden people, already hit hard by over two years of high inflation, with extra expenditures as being unable to cook food at home they are left with two options only鈥攄ine out or go hungry.
鈥楽urrounded by so many crises such as oil and gas shortages, we cannot guarantee the power crisis will go away soon,鈥� said Khandaker Mokammel Hossain, member, Bangladesh Power Development Board.
Over the first week of the month, with maximum electricity demand reaching around 14,000MW, Bangladesh recorded nearly 2,000MW of load shedding, resulting in up to 18 hours of power cuts in rural areas and several hours in cities.
The power demand is predicted to reach 17,500MW later in the month, apparently intensifying pressure on the already strained economy to provide enough gas and oil to generate electricity to meet the demand.
On Monday, reported Petrobangla, merely around 2,657mmcfd gas was supplied against the overall demand of over 4,108mmcfd, while the power sector received 1,050mmcfd gas on the day against a demand of 2,317mmcfd.
Authorities said that the overall gas supply might increase by 300mmcfd in a day or two, helping improve the situation a little.
A series of nor鈥檞ester over the last two days momentarily brought down the temperature and with it load shedding also to below 1,000MW. But the situation is set to worsen with the Bangladesh Meteorological Department warning that the day temperature might increase by up to 3C today.
Power cuts crucially affect piped water supply as an hour of power cut disrupts the smooth operation of pumps for the next three hours in lifting groundwater or water from rivers for piped supply.
Last year, a drought amid frequent power cuts resulted in an acute shortage of water across the city.
Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority deputy managing director AKM Shahid Uddin claimed to have secured generator back up at every water pump to tackle power cuts.聽
The problem, however, remains barely the same as the fuel for the pumps is imported, which is again constrained by the ongoing dollar crisis that critically limited the government鈥檚 fuel import capacity.
A water crisis has persisted in Mirpur鈥檚 Shialbari for the past one month.
鈥榃e get water for 15 minutes every day,鈥� said Priyanka Rahman, a housewife in Shialbari, describing how the five members in her family race to collect water in two big drums in such a short time.
Still, as the water is not enough, the family have become regular visitors in parts of the city where their relatives live with better water supply.
Fighting for water during the month of fasting has been really tough in a city where all natural sources of water have been either encroached or left polluted by industries and others flouting rules round the clock.
Residents of Mirpur-12 have been suffering from water crisis for more than two weeks.
鈥榃e buy water from the WASA tank lorries when they come. They are not regularly available though,鈥� said Mohammad Babu, a resident of Mirpur-12.
Water crisis has also been reported in Nawabganj Lane, Abdul Aziz Lane and Lalit Mohan Das Lane, areas under Ward-23 of the Dhaka South City Corporation.
鈥榃e get half the demand,鈥� said Mokbul Hossain, the councillor of the ward.
Piped water is available in large cities and urban towns only. Many small towns are yet to be under piped water supply, let alone rural areas.
People living in the sprawling urban slums bear the brunt of water crisis for they lack access to adequate piped water supply, hundreds depending on a single tap for drinking water.
The poor face even starker competition for water during the summer months, particularly between March and May.
Gas crisis was reported in Zurain, Azimpur, Ganderia and Badda areas.
Ferdous Khan, a resident of Bhatara, said that piped gas supply runs completely dry from 8:00am to 2:00pm every day for the past one year but it improved a little before the Ramadan.
鈥業 fear the situation would worsen after the Eid-ul-fitr,鈥� said Ferdous.
He said that they bought induction stove in the wake of the gas crisis.
Residents in the capital鈥檚 Zurain said that they are getting no piped gas supply most of the time during the day, where the state-owned company Titas has recently started pipeline maintenance.
Mizanur Rahman, a resident at Zurain said that the gas flow remains severely down for 10鈥�12 hours a day.
Residents in the capital鈥檚 Ganderia said that the gas supply reduces before Iftar.
Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited director Salim Miah told 抖阴精品 that the gas crisis would soon go away with the import of more liquefied natural gas.
Bangladesh has the capacity to import 1,000mmcfd, which the country could never use due to the high price of the fuel or ongoing dollar crisis.
Frequent power outages have also caused severe water crisis in villages where boro growers are spending sleepless nights watching many of their crop fields develop cracks for acute water shortage.
Irrigation-intensive boro is grown lifting groundwater, which the farmers in many areas cannot do as pumps cannot be operated due to power outages.
