Abstract:
Water is literally the essence of life, and unsafe water is a threat to human
lives. Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, is one of the most densely populated
cities in the world, which has nearly 20 million residents who face tremendous
difficulties in getting safe water for their daily needs. A crisis of water
governance in terms of administrative and financial incapacity hinders the
opportunity to access water. Added to that, disproportionate uses of water,
knowledge gap about safe water, violation of laws, and absence of structural
ideas on sustainable water management are critically important issues in terms
of ‘access to water’. However, Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority
(DWASA) is not well-equipped for providing safe drinking water due to
various reasons, including the limited number of water treatment plants. In this
paper, key challenges of water management were examined. It explores how
the existing authority of water management delivers services and how the role
of different stakeholder exerts influence in the sector. Adopting the qualitative
research approach, the study tried to find out the current magnitude of water
crisis in Dhaka city. While this was a qualitative study, based on the secondary
data with personal observations, the data was analysed descriptively.
