HC forms committee to test quality of Wasa water

The High Court yesterday formed a five-member committee to examine the quality of water supplied by Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa), and submit a report in two months.

The committee includes representatives from Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (LGRD); Bureau of Research, Testing and Consultation of Buet; International Centre for Diarrheal Diseases Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B); Faculty of Pharmacy, Dhaka University (DU); and Faculty Biological Sciences, DU.

Read more: Half of country's 'safe' water supply contaminated

he court also issued a rule asking the government authorities concerned to explain why their failure and inaction to supply safe water should not be declared illegal, and why they should not be directed to do so.

Secretaries to ministries of LGRD and health, director general of Directorate of Health Services, chief engineer of public health department, and managing directors of Wasa in Dhaka, Chattogram, Rajshahi and Khulna have been made respondents to the rule.

The HC bench of Justice JBM Hassan and Justice Md Khairul Alam delivered the order and rule, following a writ petition filed by Supreme Court lawyer Tanvir Ahmed.

In the petition filed on October 14, he included a report published by The Daily Star on October 12, based on a World Bank study.

The World Bank report said 98 percent of Bangladesh's population has access to water from technologically-improved sources, but E coli contamination was found in 80 percent of household tap water across the country.