Water Supply of Dhaka City: Present Context and Future Scenarios

Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, has been expanding both horizontally and vertically since last three decades with an estimated annual growth of six percent. Over the past several decades, concerns have been raised regarding the amount of water used in Dhaka as with higher rates of personal water use, which mostly collected from ground water resulting in declined aquifers across the area. This study investigated household consumption and management behaviour, more specifically household water management of different income groups of Dhaka city. Based on the present water demand and supply data of Dhaka city, this study attempted to build three scenarios for the year 2050. The study finds that despite Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority’s (DWASA) existing capacity of supplying required water to its population, quality-water scarcity has been increasing at household level mostly due to management inefficiency. Under a business-as-usual scenario, the situation signals for a worrying future where 12.37 million people may be deprived of basic water requirement by 2050. In addition to existing inequality, unplanned rapid urbanization and over extraction of groundwater make the inhabitants more vulnerable to access to safe water. This research predicts that unless substantive actions are taken to increase surface water supply as well as reducing Unaccounted for Water (UfW) in response to increased demand, a considerable number of Dhaka’s population will be deprived of access to minimum water with increased inequality even under ambitious future roadmap .