Abstract:
Water being termed as another name of life, the M'1mlardof qu~hfy of life in all urban arca
is much depenuent on the extent of the availability of drinking water. Only an Jverage of one
quarter of the people living in the urban areas of BanglaJe,h are servieel.1Wilh piped water
supply. The rest are to depend OIl other sources ltke hJnd pump lUbewells, dug wells, ponJs
streams etc., whi~h cannot meet up lhe dcmund with quality and quantity all the times,
bringing about water borne di,eases, ill-health anJ pollutel.1environment 10 the people, So,
a planned water supply system is necess~ry for serving the Ul'ban people Wilh adequate
quantity of urinking water of good quality,
The Pallra,hava of Pabna , ~ first cl~ss one, w~s ~e1e~tedfor the case stul.1y,It is one of the
oldest Municipalities in the country and facing season~1scarcity of waler SOli rees. Uptill now
it has been able to :;upply pipet.!water to 17% of its inhabitants (lnly, The :.tul.1yunJertaken
was aimed tu the analysis and evalu~tion of the water supply sy:.temavailable, and probable
allernalives, and finding out a suitable waler supply system plan for the p("op!c of the
Paurash~va targelled tu the year 2001.
The findings of the research showed lbat about lhree quarter of the people of the Paurashava
have the demand ror piped water supply (mainly due tu the puor quality and scarcity of water
available from the hald tubewcll, as,ocialed inconvenience ~nd eo~t as compared to the
availubrlity, quality, cust ant.! convenience of pipeJ waler sUl'ply. From the stndy it is
revealeJ thaI unly about 60% of the population could be served with piped WRla supply
system, because it requires to satisfy the pre-reqllisite demity, connection rate, 10cati(lnal
conditions and the economy of the capital and opefati(Jn~1WS[Sof the syst~m.Agaill,out uf
lhem,24% people are 10b~ served with public stand post for not having the ability to pRyfor
house conneetions.The re.lt (about 40%) uf the people in areas with lower demities arc to be
served either with hand pump tubewells or with deep set pump tubewells f(lr ensuring the
availability uf waler Juring draught period. The majurity of the non.doillestie users, viz,.
Public Institutions, hotels, industries, ho;pil~l~ ete. of th~ p~ulash~va have been found nnd
proposed to be serviced with piped '\i~ler supply system.
A~cordjngly, a c()mpreh~nsive Waler supply system plan has been developed con~i,ling of
hand pump tubewells anl.1piped water supply system along with the cost e,timate and an
implementation schedule. Considering consumers'ability 10 pay and Pallr.1shava's required
revenue to run the system a ,tentative water rate for the future years has also bcen
recommended.
