Safe Water Project for 380 Homes Stalled Over Funding, Three Years Without Iron-Free Water

A safe drinking water project in Char Madar village in Dewanganj has stalled over a funding complication. It was meant at first to supply safe water to only 50 homes, but demand later added 330 more, taking the total to 380. The project budget, however, was not increased accordingly, and the contractor is alleged to be dragging its feet on finishing the work for that reason.

The deadline has passed, but beneficiaries still have no safe water. Villagers have demanded that the work be finished quickly and safe water supplied, saying the water from their own tube-wells contains iron.

The Upazila Department of Public Health Engineering took up the “Safe Water Supply Across the Country” project for homes in Char Madar, at a cost of Tk 2.60 crore. Work was due to start on 28 April 2022, and the eighteen-month project was due to finish in 2024.

Land acquisition complications, however, delayed the start by five months for the Dhaka contractor BM Trade. The project is being implemented in Char Madar village of Char Amkhawa union, 20 kilometres north of the upazila headquarters.

An overhead tank has been installed beside Char Madar Government Primary School. Pipe connections and platforms to supply water to the surrounding 380 homes have been completed. What remains unfinished is technical work including installing the motor or pump, so despite the tank, no water is flowing.

Those affected say that once the project starts they will get iron-free safe water. There was also a plan that once implemented, a local committee of beneficiaries would be formed and the project would be run under that committee.

The allegation is that while the contract covered supply to 50 homes, connections were given to 380 homes according to demand. Costs rose, but the allocation for the extra connections was never adjusted. For that reason the contractor completed 70 percent of the work and left the remaining 30 percent undone.

Sources at the Upazila Department of Public Health Engineering said four to five letters have already been sent urging the contractor to finish the remaining work, the latest on 6 October this year. The firm is not heeding them, the sources said, and there are allegations it will not do the unfinished work unless the cost of the extra work is adjusted.

Beneficiary Akkas Ali said the water line work has been stopped for a long time. Work remains, but it is not being done. If it started, they would get safe water and there would be no disease. Their demand is for the line to be started quickly. Freedom fighter Gazi Md. Shamsul Haque also said a tank has been installed but still not started, and requested that the remaining work be finished fast.

Another beneficiary, Nur Nahar, said the line was laid in the village but they got no benefit. Their tube-well water has iron. If the line started, they would get iron-free water. They took the line hoping for fresh water, but three years have passed without it.

BM Trade engineer Shahid Mia said the firm had been busy with another project, which is now finished. The unfinished work on this project will be started this month, he said.

The firm's owner, Bablu Mia, said they did extra work — connections to 380 families instead of 50. A revised budget was prepared for this, passed by the executive engineer's office and now at the project director's office. Once approved there, the extra cost will be adjusted, they have been told, and he hopes work will start within two weeks. Assistant engineer Majedur Rahman said the revised budget raises the cost by Tk 18 lakh and is awaiting approval. The 380 families of Char Madar are now waiting on that approval and on the promised restart.