Ullapara Correspondent:

A surface water treatment plant built at a cost of Tk 21.27 crore in Ullapara municipality of Sirajganj was inaugurated on Tuesday by District Commissioner (DC) Md. Aminul Islam.

The plant, constructed under the Bangladesh Municipal Water Supply and Sanitation Project, has been built on the bank of the Karatoya River at Ghatina in Ullapara municipality.

With a storage capacity of 600,000 litres, the treatment plant will be able to purify around 350,000 litres of water per hour, according to the municipal authorities.

The project is expected to provide a reliable supply of safe drinking water to thousands of municipal residents while reducing dependence on groundwater.

Municipal authorities said, one of the major advantages of the project is that it will use surface water instead of groundwater. Excessive extraction of groundwater through deep tube wells causes the underground water table to decline, while groundwater often contains high levels of iron and other elements, making treatment more difficult than that of surface water, they said.

Over 4,000 families in the municipality are expected to receive water connections under the project. Each connection will cost Tk 250, while consumers will be charged Tk 12 for every 1,000 litres of water.

Speaking at the inauguration, District Commissioner (DC) Aminul Islam expressed satisfaction over the completion of the project and said contaminated water is responsible for many diseases affecting ordinary people.

“If municipal residents use this treated water, they will be able to protect themselves from many waterborne diseases,” he said.

He also instructed the municipal authorities to ensure water reaches residential areas as soon as possible, saying the project had officially begun operations with its inauguration.

Ullapara Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Raihanul Islam, who is currently performing the duties of the municipality’s mayor, Public Health Engineering Department engineer Mehedi Hasan, Mohammad Mohsin Reza, who donated 50 decimals of land for the plant, and Municipal Administrator Ashraful Islam Bhuiyan were present at the inauguration.