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The Dhaka Water Services Turnaround
How Dhaka is connecting slums, saving water, raising revenues, and becoming one of South Asia’s best public water utilities
Manoj Sharma and Melissa Alipalo
© 2017 Asian Development Bank
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Some rights reserved. Published in 2017.
ISBN 978-92-9261-024-1 (print), 978-92-9261-025-8 (electronic)
Publication Stock No. TCS179117-2
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22617/TCS179117-2
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Turnaround
noun turn·around \- raūnd\
a complete change from a bad situation to a good situation, from one way of thinking to an opposite way of thinking, etc.
Source: Merriam-Webster’s Learner’s Dictionary
“We were a water-crisis city. It was a very difficult period, and we needed a total turnaround.”
Taqsem Khan, managing director, Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority
Acknowledgments
This publication was written by Manoj Sharma, principal urban development specialist, Urban Development and Water Division, South Asia Department (SARD), and Melissa Howell Alipalo, knowledge solutions specialist for the water sector (consultant).
The project management office for the Dhaka Water Supply Sector Development Program, Bangladesh, provided highly valued information, cooperation, and guidance. Thanks are especially due to Taqsem Khan, managing director, Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA); Shahid Uddin, then project director and chief engineer, DWASA; and Md. Kamrul Hasan and Md. Mahmudul Islam, present DWASA project directors.
Former project staff—particularly Tomoo Ueda, principal evaluations specialist, Independent Evaluations Department; Masayuki Tachiiri, principal planning and policy specialist; Norio Saito, deputy country director, Viet Nam Resident Mission; and Md. Rafiqul Islam, former ADB staff—all offered singular insights into the early stages of the project as well as archival images. Akira Matsunaga, Suzanne Barbin, and Jade Marie Dumaguing of the Urban Development and Water Division, SARD, and colleagues in the Urban and Water Sector groups, particularly Ellen Pascua and Pia Reyes, reviewed the content and extended the support of the ADB-managed Water Financing Partnership Facility to the publication team.
The editorial team was directed by Melissa Howell Alipalo (writer) and comprised Mohammad Rakibul Hasan, photographer; Randolph L. Perez, graphic design and layout artist; Tim Alipalo, video editor; and Mary Ann E. Asico, editor. They are grateful for the welcome shown them by the project implementing consultants and DWASA staff, and by the people of Korail and Shattola slums, who shared their stories of the project’s impact on their work and lives.
Finally, this publication would not have been possible without the guidance and encouragement of Hun Kim, director general, SARD; Sekhar Bonu, director, Urban Development and Water Division, SARD; and from the Bangladesh Resident Mission, Kazuhiko Higuchi, country director, and Zahir Uddin Ahmad, senior water resources officer.
Foreword
This publication features a project that turned around an urban water utility in South Asia, and offers a good example for other similar utilities in South Asia. ADB’s support to the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) provided a breakthrough in the delivery of clean, reliable, affordable, and continuous water to the residents, including the poor, in Dhaka. This is not just a breakthrough for Dhaka or the rest of Bangladesh, but for the region of South Asia, which struggles
