Rajshahi Healthy Ward Pilot Water Supply Surveillance Gul Bahar Sarkar and Han Heijnen, WHO/DPHE, Dhaka, Bangladesh

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1 Rajshahi Healthy Ward Pilot Water Supply Surveillance Gul Bahar Sarkar and Han Heijnen, WHO/DPHE, Dhaka, Bangladesh Please note: if you want to see the pictures referred to in the text, these are available in the sub-folder called Photos. The pictures have been imported into Word documents to make downloading easier. Introduction: Rajshahi is one the 4 cities of Bangladesh in the North-East of the country, close to the Indian border and built along the banks of the River Ganges. Rajshahi is one of the 4 towns that participate in the WHO supported Healthy Towns Programme. As the supply of good quality water and sanitation are possible components of healthy towns programmes, a pilot study in Water Quality Surveillance has been initiated in Ward No: 12 in Rajshahi, one of the 35 wards of Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC). The pilot study was initiated following an orientation workshop of the concerned staff of the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) and RCC and the City Mayor on September. A further briefing was given by Mr. Han A. Heijnen, Team Leader, BAN PHE 001 with the Commissioner, local people and Imams of the mosque of the ward and officers of RCC. History of the Rajshahi water supply The Rajshahi water supply system was installed in 1937 by the then water supply section of the Ministry of Works, Calcutta, India. The system had more than 100 street water reservoirs, locally called Dhopekal (see picture 1), each with a capacity of 470 gallons. The Dhopekals were connected to a centrally built iron and hardness removal plant and an elevated service reservoir (see picture 2) through reticulated distribution pipes of cast iron of diameter 3 to 6. The reticulation system covered an area of about 4 square kilometers and was designed to serve a population of about 20 thousand people. The treatment plant, the Hatem Khan water works, had a capacity of 700m 3 water per day but was abandoned in The elevated service reservoir is also not now used. However, many of the Dhopekals are still in use by the Water Supply Authority in the town. Current Status of Rajshahi Water Supply and Sanitation: During the decades 1980 and 1990, DPHE with Dutch Government and Government of Bangladesh support, implemented 1981 Rajshahi Water Supply Master Plan. This supplies ground water from 40 deep tubewells through pipe networks of 200 km reticulated over an area of square kilometers. The system is designed to serve to the estimated population in the year 2000 of 7 lakh (700,000). Present availability of water supply in the municipal area is that 70% of the population have access to pipe water and 30% by tubewells with handpumps. Sanitation coverage is 58% and 42% by septic tank and pit latrines respectively. However, the deterioration of the infrastructure due to poor maintenance leads to open-air defecation (see picture 3) and water supplies being inundated with contaminated water (see picture 4).

2 Need for Water Supply Surveillance: In a 3-month study of the quality of Rajshahi water supplies in 1989 conducted by DPHE Rajshahi zonal laboratory, showed that 40-80% of samples were contaminated by faecal coliform bacteria. All of the 40 samples collected from tubewells with handpumps and production tubewells had arsenic concentration in the range shown below. Conc. Mg/1 No. of samples TOTAL 40 Rajshahi Water Supplies and Health RCC Primary Health Care project records show that 4371 cases of diarrhoeal diseases in 2000 and 1161 in 1999 from the Corporation area were treated in its Health Care Unit. No death due to diarrhoea occurred during the period. Rajshahi Medical College Hospital kept records of diarrhoeal cases from all over the district, without mentioning urban or rural, during a period of 1.5 months only from to The record showed 6 death cases in October. Healthy Ward Water Supply and Sanitation Surveillance: The ward No. 12 selected for Healthy Town Programme comprises of 10 blocks inhabited by 8291 male and 8057 female population including 1842 in 3 slums. There are 26 hand pumps tube wells, 20 public stand posts, 7 Dhopkhals, 3 production wells and 4 ponds in this study ward. Since orientation and further briefing on concepts of Healthy City and Water Quality Surveillance (WQS), domestic solid waste management in this ward improved and roads/lanes appeared clean. The above mentioned 4 ponds were cleaned of solid waste recently but their water are still full of algae and being used for bathing and washing clothes and utensils. Several ditches surround by dwelling houses are yet to be cleaned. Some ditches are still full of solid waste including polythene bags. Water from this ditch is inundating the platform of a tube well with septic and odorous water (see picture 5). This tube well also is regularly used for bathing and washing utensils. All the public stand posts were seen either fitted with broken plastic tap keys or without any taps resulting in continuous water loss. The DPHE laboratory staff collected 17 water samples from the distribution system of this study ward and examined them for faecal coliform bacteria using DelAgua kit (see picture 6 and 7). 12 samples showed faecal coliform growth of 3 to 100 colonies/100ml. They also collected 40 ground water samples from distribution system and hand pump tube wells throughout the city early 1999 to test for Arsenic. All of them contained Arsenic including 6 in the range mg/l.

3 Mr. Gul Bahar Sarkar, the WHO Chemist and facilitator of Drinking Water Supply Surveillance in Bangladesh went round the study ward, watched the collections and bacteriological examinations of water supplies using DelAgua kit. He also discussed with the community about water, sanitation and health and proper utilization of drinking water supplies (picture 8). The staff of RCC also have access to a DelAgua test kit and will soon undertake routine surveillance. Delays have been caused by the problems caused by flooding, followed by Ramadan. A map of the study ward is being prepared to assist in the development of the surveillance programme. Mr. Sarkar, the facilitator of the programme, had a discussion with the Chief Engineer on how progress of the surveillance programme in the RCCC ward no. 12 can be speeded up and this was expected to occur following Ramadan. Removal of algal water from the solid wastes cleaned ponds and cleaning and earth filling of the abandoned ditches may help improve the living conditions of all city dwellers irrespective of status.

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