Water supply system planning for district town : a case study of Pabna paurashava

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.