Water, power crisis torment people in sultry weather
Mild heat wave may continue 2-3 more days
Manjurul Ahsan | Published: 00:01, May 23,2017 | Updated: 00:15, May 23,2017
A man pours water in pitchers placed in his front from a supply line of a Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority pump at Pallabi in Dhaka on Monday as water crisis deepens amid mild heat wave in the country. — Ali Hussain Mintu
Shortage of water supply and frequent power cuts have worsened swelter in mild heat wave that has been sweeping over most parts of the country for three days and may continue for two-three more days.
Physicians warned that working class, particularly day labourers, rickshaw pullers and farmers, might face heat stroke if they were exposed to the sun light for long time.
A mild heat wave is sweeping over Dhaka, Khulna and Barisal divisions and Rajshahi, Pabna, Chandpur and Noakhali regions and it may continue, said the met office weather forecast that remained unchanged in the past three days.
High humidity and a sudden rise in average temperature by two to three degrees Celsius in just three days caused the swelter, meteorologist Bazlur Rashid told New Age on Sunday.
The average temperature went up by up to 3 degrees Celsius after May 18, he said.
The highest temperature in the country was recorded in Khulna at 40.7 degrees Celsius while in Dhaka it was 35.1 degrees Celsius on Monday, met officials said.
The situation may persist for three more days in most of the areas of the country as there would not be much rainfall to reduce the temperature, Bazlur Rashid said.
He warned that the sweltering heat might continue further if any major change in pressure occurred in the Bay of Bengal.
Dehydration is the most common phenomenon that people may experience in such weather, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh
senior medical officer SM Rafiqul Islam said.
He suggested that working class like rickshaw pullers and farmers should take a break in the shade after every 10 minutes or they might face heat stroke.
Dhaka Medical College medicine professor Khan Abul Kalam Azad suggested avoiding physical exertion, particularly for patients of kidney and diabetes.
He also said that people should drink safe water as much as they sweated and should carry umbrella and water bottle if they could not avoid going outside.
Shortage of water supply, however, worsened the swelter and made it uncertain of people of many areas in Dhaka to have safe water for drinking and as needed for other uses.
Although the Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority officially claimed that it had capacity for supplying water more than the city’s demand, officials said that they could meet only 80 per cent of the demand.
The authority now supplies 1,800 to 1,900 million litres of water a day in Dhaka against a demand for at least 2,200 million litres, an official of the authority said.
He attributed declining groundwater levels and technical problems with water wells to the supply shortage particularly in different areas, including Merul Badda, Rampura, Banasree, Mogbazar, Old Town, Farm Gate, Raza Bazar, Mohammadpur and Mirpur.
Water lifting from reservoir in basements to rooftop tanks of building is also disrupted by frequent power cuts that also piles up miseries on the people amid swelter.
The frequency and duration of power cuts are much higher in the rural areas. Power cuts are occurred for 8-10 times in rural areas and for up to 15 times in urban areas a day, officials and sufferers said.
The frequent power cuts would continue to intensify the sufferings as 10 power plants would remain out of operation for up to four days, state minister for power, energy and mineral resources Nasrul Hamid said on Monday.
He also attributed a damaged tower of Ghorashal-Iswardi 230kV transmission line and shortage of gas supplies to the power stations to the deficit in power supply.
On May 1, the tower was damaged by nor’easter and the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh would need at least one month to restore it, said grid company officials.
In the past few days, shortage of power supply often stood at about 2,000MW with the rise in mercury height as the utilities supplied up to 8,250MW against the demand for more than 10,000MW during peak hours, they said.
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