DMA helping Dhaka Wasa curb system loss

District Metered Area (DMA), a monitoring system, has helped Dhaka Wasa significantly cut its system loss and become self-sufficient in supplying water to city dwellers.
 
Dhaka Wasa’s current production capacity is 255 crore liters a day against the daily demand of 220-240 crore liters.
 
An official document says the overall system loss in areas covered by Dhaka Wasa is 20 percent. The introduction of DMA has cut the system loss by up to 35 percent.
 
Before the DMA was introduced, the system loss in the areas was 40 percent, the document shows. The government initially decided to introduce 164 DMAs. Of them, the process to introduce 62 DMAs has been completed while 10 more are in the pipeline.

In the light of Vision 2021, the capital city will be under the purview of DMA, which is defined as a discrete area of a water distribution network. It is usually created by closing boundary valves so that it remains flexible to changing demands.
 
A DMA can also be created by permanently disconnecting pipes to neighbouring areas. Water flowing in and out of the DMA is metered and flows are periodically analysed to monitor the level of leakage.
 
DMAs can basically be categorised into three different types – single inlet DMAs, multiple inlet DMAs and cascading DMAs.
 
According to the document, Bangladesh is the first country in South Asia to introduce DMA by changing old pipelines.
 
About half the work has been done with financial assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), it says, adding that the rest of the work is on.
 
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) in 2016 approved the ‘Dhaka Water Supply Network Development’ project involving an estimated cost of Tk 3,182.3 crore to enhance the capacity of Dhaka Wasa.

Dhaka Wasa, under the Local Government Division, is implementing the water supply network development project by December 2021.
 
Out of the estimated project cost, the government is providing Tk 1037.3 crore. The rest will come as project assistance from the ADB.
 
Wasa officials said the misuse of water has come down significantly.
 
The illegal connections have been legalised, resulting in economical use of power at national level and reducing the epidemic of various waterborne diseases.
 
The project also aims to bring all the citizens, including low-income people and slum-dwellers, under legal water-supply connections and ensure the basic rights of those living in the metropolis area.