Managing Director of Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Dhaka Wasa) Taqsem A Khan has said that the water tariff should be raised byvat least 20 percent.

He made the remarks on Wednesday while briefing reporters about the water entity’s recent proposal placed at a Wasa board meeting to raise its tariff by 40 percent.

“We’ve moved the proposal to adjust the tariff with our production costs,” he said.

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As per the proposal, placed at the Wasa Board meeting on Monday last, the water tariff for household consumers will go up to Tk 21 from Tk 15.18 while commercial consumers’ tariff will be raised to Tk 55 from the existing Tk 42.

If the proposal is approved by the Wasa Board, it will come into effect on July 1, 2022.

Defending the tariff enhancement plan, the Dhaka Wasa chief said the initiative has been taken to make the organisation financially viable and self-reliant.

“We've to do the debt servicing regularly to pay back the loans taken from international financing agencies to implement our different development projects,” Taqsem told reporters.

The government is the guarantor of these loans, he added.

He claimed that still the government has been providing a huge amount of subsidy to the Dhaka Wasa to keep the city’s water tariff lower and keep the entity smoothly functional.

“We've been receiving Tk 10 as the government subsidy per 1000 litres of water. But an organiasation like Dhaka Wasa cannot sustain depending on such financial support," said Taqsem Khan.

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He said there is advice from the government to gradually raise the water tariff.

The water tariff of the Dhaka Wasa was raised on 13 occasions in the last 13 years since the Awami League assumed office in 2009.