Global Ecology and Conservation 10 (2017) 9–22

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Global Ecology and Conservation

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/gecco

Original research article

Sustainable water demand management in the face of rapid

urbanization and ground water depletion for
social–ecological resilience building
Md. Arfanuzzaman ∗ , A. Atiq Rahman
Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS), H-10, R-16a, Gulshan avenue, Dhaka-1212, Bangladesh

article info abstract

Article history: Necessity of Sustainable water demand management (SWDM) is immensely higher in the
Received 13 November 2016 rapidly urbanized mega cities of the world where groundwater depletion and water deficit
Received in revised form 17 January 2017 are taking place perilously. This paper focuses on the present condition of water demand,
Accepted 20 January 2017
supply, system loss, pricing strategy, groundwater level, and per capita water consumption
Available online 8 February 2017
of Dhaka city, Bangladesh. The study founds population growth has a large influence on
water demand to rise and demand of water is not responsive to the existing pricing rule
Keywords:
Water conservation
adopted by DWASA. It emerges that, water demand is increasing at 4% rate an average in the
Ground water depletion Dhaka city since 1990 and groundwater table goes more than 70 m down in central capital
Optimum water pricing due to extensive withdrawal of water. The study suggests an integrated SWDM approach,
Social–ecological resilience which incorporates optimum pricing, ground and surface water regulation, water
Sustainable water demand management conservation, sustainable water consumption and less water foot print to ease groundwater
Water resource economics depletion. In order to attain sustainability in water demand management (WDM) the
Urban water security study recommends certain criteria under economic, social and environmental segment to
administer the increasing water demand of growing population and conserve the fresh
water resources of the world’s mega cities for social–ecological resilience building.
© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC
BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction

Water demand management, ensuring minimum water for daily consumption, water resource planning, and ground
water depletion are the common concern in the rapidly urbanized mega cities around the world and the challenge is much
higher in the developing countries to address and mitigate such primary water problems. In 2014, closely 3.9 billion people,
or 54% of the global population lived in cities, and by 2050, two-thirds of the global population will be living in cities,
which will generate 55% additional water demand in the world (OECD, 2012; UNDESA, 2012). The future water condition
will be impossible to manage unless the world cities are able to address the present water challenges including water
security, demand management, conservation, equity, water efficiency and sustainable consumption. In household water
security index Central and West Asia, East Asia, South Asia, the Pacific and the advanced economies obtained 2.3, 3, 1, 1.5
and 5 respectively. Besides, in urban water security index Central and West Asia, East Asia, South Asia, the Pacific and the
advanced economies received 1.6, 2, 1.9, 1 and 2.9 correspondingly (ADB, 2013). It appears that, the situation of urban
water security index is comparatively worse than the household water security index for all the regions and the condition
of South Asia is relatively lower in both categories. The existing index suggest that, all the regions specially the developing

∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: arfan@asia.com, thisisarfan@gmail.com (Md. Arfanuzzaman), atiq.rahman@bcas.net (A. Atiq Rahman).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2017.01.005
2351-9894/© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
10 Md. Arfanuzzaman, A. Atiq Rahman / Global Ecology and Conservation 10 (2017) 9–22

world have good room to improve the water condition in urban and household level for ensuring the long term well being
of the nations, which can be done through properly implementing SWDM approach. Broadly, sustainable WDM addresses
how the countries are ensuring the efficient use of water to sustain their economic growth, food production, household
consumption, industry, and energy (WWAP, 2015; ADB, 2013). The study focuses the case of Dhaka city of Bangladesh
to investigate such problem and provide a systematic framework of sustainable water demand management for enabling
social–ecological resilience, which may useful to the other countries with similar context. Here, resilience refers to the
capacity of a social–ecological system to absorb or withstand perturbations and other stressors such that the system remains
within the same regime, essentially maintaining its structure and functions (Holling, 1973; Gunderson and Holling, 2002;
Walker et al., 2004).
Nevertheless to say, Dhaka is one of the highly populated mega cities in the world. Unplanned urbanization, rapid
industrialization and immense migration inflows are putting pressure to the principal public utility services system
including electricity, energy, and water. Further, policy lacks for the decentralization of Dhaka city is responsible to create
deadlock for reducing population pressure from its frontier, which uplift the population size closely 16 million from the
3.03 million in 1980. In this backdrop, it is a challenging task to provide quality public utility services to the city dwellers.
Presently, 87% of the supplied water comes from the ground water resources and only 13% water comes from the surface
water (SW) treatment plants to meet the growing demand of this huge population of Metropolitan Dhaka. Dhaka is bordered
by a good number of rivers such as Turag, Buriganga, Balu, and Lakhya, which are perilously polluted by the resident and
commercial waste disposal, industrial effluent, and other anthropogenic activities (Islam et al., 2010a,b). The biological
oxygen demand and the ecosystem of these rivers are no more exists at this moment (BBS, MICS and UNICEF, 2011). Besides,
river filling, illegal housing are dangerously squeezing the river basin areas and swiftly eliminating the canal, ponds and
wetlands from the Dhaka city (Biswas et al., 2010). In this backdrop DWASA is not getting sufficient source of fresh surface
water, and facing technical and economic infeasibility to decontaminate the over polluted river water to the level of safe
drinking water. Thus, extreme stress falls in the ground water resources, which forces to deplete the ground water table
comprehensively. If the existing trend of ground water extraction continues the stock may no longer available in the future
for withdrawal, which will make the society and ecology in irreversible condition (Uddin and Baten, 2011). Presently, the
ground water level of Dhaka city dropped to more than 52 m below mean sea level (MSL) from the 34.18 m in 2000 and
26.6 in 1996 which is triggered by the excessive withdrawal and least ground water recharge. As a result environmental
degradation takes place around the city and the risk of intrusion of the southern saline water into the ground water reservoir
is also appearing. In this context, a sustainable water demand management (SWDM) policy becomes mandatory, which will
incorporate the sustainable consumption, water extraction and distribution, optimum pricing, taxing for private deep wells,
water conservation and water pollution.
Zahid and Ahmed (2009) strives to suggest an appropriate sustainability criterion in WDM for the fast urbanized mega
cities around the globe, where water demand is relatively higher and increasing day by day along with depleting the
ground water level. In their words groundwater management must adopt an integrated approach taking into account
a wide range of ecological, socio-economic and hydrological factors because country’s GDP is highly dependent on the
development of water resources in general. Uddin and Baten (2011) projected that if the existing trend of ground water
extraction takes place, by 2050 groundwater level will go down 120 m in the Dhaka city and the present groundwater
recharge of the city is counted only 1.33 m/y against 2.81 m/y of depletion rate. Furthermore, the study has attempted to
draw three scenarios considering existing water supply situation, future roadmap, unaccounted for water, downtime or
production loss to project water demand and supply up to 2050. All of the three scenarios showed a large gap in water
demand and supply situation. The study suggests that, in order to meet the growing water demand effective and demand
driven water supply management in essential for Dhaka city. Change in tariff often use to change the water demand but
water tariff alone does not influence the demand for water always. Worthington and Hoffmann (2008) demonstrated that,
price elasticity of water varied between −0.25 and −0.75 because water tariff represent a small proportion of income
and has no substitute for basic uses. Statzu and Strazzera (2009); and Schleich and Hillenbrand (2009) found that along
with tariff and income level some other driving forces such as population characteristics, population density, immigration,
household feature and economic growth are responsible to affect the water demand of urban areas. Jamal and Rahman
(2012) examined how the crisis of water and gas causing problem in the daily life of middle income locality of Dhaka and
found local people are taking different adoptive measures, even compromising their daily life cycle to make and adjustment
with these problems. Kumar and Singh (2001) defined certain market based instrument for demand management in the face
of water scarcity and over use of water in the agriculture of Western India. The paper suggests the use of water market as the
institutional arrangement for promoting economically efficient use along with rational pricing of canal water and electricity
for encouraging conservation. MAPC (2006) endeavors to produce a guideline for summer water demand management
for Massachusetts and revealed that in many Massachusetts communities water consumption rises 50% or more during
summer time, but water supplies are hampered as very city’s river is discharging very low water during summer months.
This mismatch between supply and demand is partly due to local water policies that tend to promise abundance and
promote consumption. The study recommends public education, voluntary conservation, conservation pricing, irrigation
controls, and direct water use regulation are indispensable for the long term WDM along with compulsory investment,
and political commitment. Available studies are based on WDM and ground water depletion, but no paper has been found
related to SWDM to conserve water resource and prevent ground water depletion from multidisciplinary perspective in the
rapidly urbanized cities of the developing world. In this backdrop, this study suggests a comprehensive approach and tools
 Md. Arfanuzzaman, A. Atiq Rahman / Global Ecology and Conservation 10 (2017) 9–22 11

Fig. 1. The boundary of Dhaka city and DWASA. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version
of this article.)
Source: Adopted from DWASA.

of optimum and SWDM for the mega city Dhaka and similar urban cities of the world as well to prosper the social–ecological
resilience. In addition, the scientific framework of this study will also help to improve the sustainability situation and
enhance the understanding of cities water resource planning and management.

2. Materials and methodology

The capital city of Bangladesh is considered as a study area. Dhaka is placed in central Bangladesh at 23°42′ N 90°22′ E, on
the eastern banks of the Buriganga River with an alleviation of 4 m. The city lies on the lower reaches of the Ganges Delta and
has a population density of 23, 234/km2 (BBS, 2012). Dhaka experiences hot, wet, and humid tropical climate. Under the
Köppen climate classification, Dhaka has a tropical savanna climate and distinct monsoonal season, with an annual average
temperature of 26.1 °C (79 °F). Approximately 87% of the annual average rainfall of 2123 mm (83.6 in.) occurs between May
and October (Hough, 2004; Weatherbase, 2007). Besides, Dhaka is one of the twin hubs of the Bangladesh financial industry.
It has one of the largest concentrations of multinational companies in South Asia (Hossain, 2014).
This study mainly covers the population of Dhaka which is under the coverage of Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage
Authority (DWASA). DWASA is a commercial water supply organization in the public sector which covers more than
360 sq. km area with 15 million people (see Fig. 1).

2.1. Data source

The study is based mainly on secondary data collected from different sources and organizations. Historical data of water
demand, water supply, supply capacity, system loss, price level, deep tube well and population collected from Dhaka WASA.
12 Md. Arfanuzzaman, A. Atiq Rahman / Global Ecology and Conservation 10 (2017) 9–22

Data of groundwater level and groundwater depletion have been collected from BADC. Further, other required data and
information are gathered from publications of Ministry of Water Resource, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and United
Nations and scientific papers. For the nature of this study both quantitative and qualitative research methods has been
applied. In order to make the analysis robust and scientific, statistical tools, GIS techniques, and data visualization method
has been adopted throughout the paper.

2.2. Quantitative techniques

For better analyzing the time series data of different variables the significance of finding growth rate is high. For the
estimation of constant growth rate of Population, Water demand and Water supply following log linear model has been
estimated.

LogY = β0 + β1 T + Ui (Gujarati and Porter, 2009) (1)

where, Y is the depended variable, β0 denotes intercept, β1 indicates regression co-efficient, T represents time, and Ui is
considered as a stochastic term.
Further, In order to assess the impact of different parameters such as population and price of water on the water demand
semi log model has been used. To squeeze the large values of population and water demand following semi log form
regression model has been adopted.

ln Wd = β0 + β1 lnpopulation + β2 lnavgprice + Ui (Gujarati and Porter, 2009) (2)

where, ln Wd is the log of water demand of Dhaka city, lnpopulation denotes the log of population, lnavgprice indicates the
log of average price of water, and Ui is the stochastic term. How much the explanatory variables are responsible to change
the dependent variable can be examined by this model.
Per capita water consumption has been estimated based on the following equation.

Tws
Pwc = (3)
Tp
where, Pwc indicates the per capita water consumption, Tws denotes the total volume of water supplied by Dhaka WASA,
and Tp refers to the population of Dhaka city.
In addition, actual water supply of different years has been calculated by subtracting the amount of system loss of the
particular year from the water supply capacity of Dhaka WASA.

3. Results and discussion

Upward population growth and economic activities are crucial to increase household and industrial water demand in
Dhaka city. The Fig. 2 demonstrates the trend of water demand (both domestic and industrial) in Dhaka is increasing quite
conspicuously since 1990s. It is apparently noticed that in 1990 the demand for water was only 1000 million liters which
is reached 1940 million liters in 2005 and 2240 million liters in 2012. During this period the population of Dhaka city was
5.56, 12.5 and 15 million correspondingly (DWASA, 1999). Rapidly growing population in this city remarkably causes the
demand for water to increase. Although, the water supply capacity of DWASA is also enlarged throughout the period the
water deficit remain significantly higher. It appears that, primarily shortage of water was 796 million liters. Then it was
further increased 2003 and 2004. After experiencing some volatility it goes down to 627 million liters in 2012. Increasing
water supply capacity is not much effective to reduce the water shortage extensively against the growing demand for water
due to system loss, old equipments, and management failure.

3.1. Growth of population, water demand and supply in Dhaka city

The estimates of log linear model, presented in Table 1 illustrates that, growth of population, water demand and water
supply is 5%, 4% and 6% respectively, which is statistically significant at 1% level. Here, the growth of population is a bit
higher than the growth of water demand. Although, growth of water supply is higher than the growth of population and
water demand it cannot meet the water demand due to existence of technical and managerial inefficiency of DWASA, and
system loss. The co-efficient of determination for all the models is more than 95%, which point toward the better goodness
of fit of the models.

3.2. Water tariff, consumption and groundwater level in Dhaka city

The Fig. 3 illustrates that, per capita water consumption, supply capacity and price of water in Dhaka city is escalating
per year. It looks per capita water consumption was in steady state during the mid period and later on there is a uptrend
 Md. Arfanuzzaman, A. Atiq Rahman / Global Ecology and Conservation 10 (2017) 9–22 13

Fig. 2. Historical trend of water demand, supply capacity and deficit in Dhaka city.

Table 1
Estimates of log linear model.
Source: Authors calculation based on the data of DWASA.
Population Water demand Supply capacity

Co-efficient 0.05 0.04 0.06

Constant 1.91 7.06 6.53
t-statistics 14.8*** 15.26*** 16.11***
Std. error 0.003 0.002 0.004
Adj. R2 0.94 0.92 0.93
Observation 17 17 17
Note:
∗
p < 0.10.
∗∗
p < 0.05.
***
p < 0.01.

in the per capita water consumption despite the increasing trend of water price in Dhaka city, which signifies price hike
does not affect the water consumption of the city dwellers and industrial users. Initially, per capita water consumption was
estimated only 37 l per day, then it reached 80 l in 2005 and further soar to 108 l in 2012 and the rise in per capita water
consumption can be assumed to be triggered by the increasing needs of household and economic activities, inefficient water
consumption, and wastage. Whereas, the per capita water shortage appears in downward trend which got pace after 2005.
In 1990 per capita water shortfall was 143 l, which decline to 79 l in 2005 and further turn down to 42 l in 2012. Per
capita water consumption increased and per capita water shortage decreased over the period due to augment the per capita
supply capacity of water from 1990 to 2012. In initial period per capita supply capacity was 92 l, which arrive at 145 l in
2012. Average price of water (domestic and industrial) was found lower initially, which was increased BDT. 17 (USD 0.22)
at 2012.
This increasing trend of per capita water consumption and declining trend of per capita water shortage indicates the
excessive extraction of groundwater of the urbanized mega city Dhaka. As 87% water supply is based on ground water
resource of Dhaka city, rise in water consumption affects the ground water level to a larger extent (DWASA, 2014; Akther
et al., 2009). In order to meet the extensive water demand of this rapidly growing city, a large number of deep tube wells
were installed in different parts of Dhaka which are playing crucial role for groundwater depletion (Islam et al., 2010a,b).
In 1990 there were only 216 deep tube wells in the city, which was 87 in 1980. To meet the increasing demand of water,
installation of deep tube well took place rapidly since 2000. Right now the number of deep tube wells reaches to more than
610 to extract the ground water resources around the city, which are fueling the depletion of groundwater table. It can be
seen from Fig. 4 that, as the number of deep tube wells increased, the groundwater level is going down remarkably. In 1997
groundwater level was 28 m from the mean sea level and in 2012 it crossed 70 m. For the excessive withdrawal of water
each year groundwater table is depleting on an average 3 m in the capital city Dhaka (Khan, 2014; Nishat et al., 2008).

3.3. Sustainable water demand management approach

In the present context of Dhaka city SWDM is essential to manage the water demand, reduce ground water depletion,
and promote sustainable consumption for building social–ecological resilience. In order to establish SWDM, sustainability
is required to be attained in economic, social and environmental segment. Here, a methodical list of indicators is developed
14 Md. Arfanuzzaman, A. Atiq Rahman / Global Ecology and Conservation 10 (2017) 9–22

Fig. 3. Trend of per capita water consumption, supply capacity and shortage.
Source: Authors estimation based on the data collected from DWASA.

Fig. 4. Trend of deep tube well installation and groundwater level.

for each section to attain the sustainability. The overall framework of SWDM depends on the criterion of economic, social
and environmental section.

3.3.1. Economic sustainability in WDM

Economic sustainability can be achieved by ensuring technical and allocative efficiency, water taxing, conservation
pricing, sustainable consumption and production and reducing system loss. The approaches and mechanisms are described
as follows.
i. Technical and allocative efficiency
Technical efficiency refers to the maximum amount of output with minimum amount of inputs. The water supply
organization needs to be technically efficient to minimize the amount inputs. Technical efficiency is related to the productive
efficiency too. If the water supply authority wants to achieve productive efficiency of water supply it must need to achieve
technical efficiency. Allocative efficiency requires the optimum allocation of resources. Thus, in order to supply water
at minimum cost and resources, and raise the revenue from water supply both technical and allocative efficiency are
prerequisite.
The Fig. 5a demonstrates that, technical efficiency occurs at point c where minimum inputs are required to produce the
maximum amount of water. Here, at y∗ , too much water is assigned to the low value Z 2 activity, and ‘‘society’’ can gain
from reallocating water from Z 2 to Z 1. If more water is allocated than y∗∗ to Z 2, any additional unit of water produces less
revenue than allocating that unit to Z 1, and vice versa, thus the maximum efficiency occurs in y∗∗ . Besides, Fig. 5b indicates
the allocative efficiency of water supply. Here, in production function, point a, b and c designates the quantity of water that
can be produced by the different allocation of resources. Here, point c is the maximum amount of water that can be produced
 Md. Arfanuzzaman, A. Atiq Rahman / Global Ecology and Conservation 10 (2017) 9–22 15

Fig. 5a. Technical efficiency.

production c>a>b

Production fn.

Water

Fig. 5b. Allocative efficiency.

by utilizing the given amount of resources. Hence, in order to achieve economic sustainability DWASA need to assure both
technical and allocative efficiency.
ii. Demand management and optimum pricing
In order to administer the demand of water in a sustainable way, drivers of demand require to be managed effectively.
The trouble faced by the toady’s water sector is that prices and tariffs are almost universally below the actual cost of supply.
This indicates that almost everywhere there are large inefficiencies in the water sector and that water tariffs are required
to be increased. It appears in Table 2 that, both population size and tariff of water has positive influence on the demand of
water in the Dhaka city. The estimate suggests one percent change in population of Dhaka city lead to change the water
demand by an average 0.68%. So, increased population is a dominant factor to increase the demand for water in the city.
Besides, there is a positive relationship found in the estimates between the water demand and water tariff. Since, the price
of water is lower in Dhaka city compared to other utility services, people tend to consume much water. It requires long term
and effective govt. policy to reduce population pressure from Dhaka but in case of effective water demand management
(WDM) there is no alternative for optimum pricing from the perspective of water conservation. For industrial and domestic
users the approach and principle of pricing should be different.
Optimum water pricing is also mandatory for economic sustainability of WDM. If water is available at cheaper rate people
tend to consume more water and the chance of wastage and overuse of water will be increased. It emerges in Fig. 6 that,
when price of water was lower consumption was at Y2 when higher price charged water consumption declined to Y1 . As
per capita water consumption trend and Table 2 signifies present pricing structure is not enough to affect the demand,
adequate room is there to adjust the existing water tariff with a view to make the water demand effective and sustainable.
Only, optimum water pricing can ensure the sustainable consumption, production and conservation of water.
In optimum water pricing water should be considered as an economic good also. Since, people of all social categories
have equal right to access and avail water, the price for required minimum amount of water to lead the daily life should
be kept lowest. Since, the price of water and income level is the determining factor of water demand, pricing rule is used
often to manage the water demand around the globe. Some previous studies presented in Table 3 illustrates that, there is
16 Md. Arfanuzzaman, A. Atiq Rahman / Global Ecology and Conservation 10 (2017) 9–22

Table 2
Estimates of robust multiple regression model.
Source: Authors calculation based on the data of DWASA.
Population Tariff of water

Coefficient 0.68 0.13

Std. error 0.088 0.091
t statistic 7.78*** 1.49*
Constant 5.46
R squared 0.98
Observation 17
Note:
*
p < 0.10.
∗∗
p < 0.05.
***
p < 0.01.

Table 3
Impact of price and income on water demand in different countries.
Authors Country Price Income

García-Valiñas (2005) Spain − +

Statzu and Strazzera (2009) Italy − +
Martins and Fortunato (2007) Portugal − =
Schleich and Hillenbrand (2009) Germany − +
Nauges and Thomas (2000) France − +
Bithas and Stoforos (2006) Greece − +
Bartczak et al. (2009) Poland − +
Höglund (1999) Sweden − =
Molle (2007) India − =
Dudu and Sinqobile (2008) Srilanka = +
+, − and = indicates positive, negative and no impact on water demand respectively.

Supply of
Water

P1

P2
Demand for
Water

Y1 Y2 Quantity of Water

Fig. 6. Optimum pricing rule of water.

an adverse relationship between price of water and demand, and positive relationship between income and demand. This
indicates price regulation can control of demand for water even though the income level is higher.
The Fig. 7 illustrates that, water tariff in Dhaka city is much lower compared to other mega cities of Asia. In India,
Singapore, Kathmandu, Jakarta, Manila, Kuala Lumpur and Dhaka tariff of per thousand liter of water is USD 2.27, 1.22,
1.06, 0.7, 0.6, 0.45 and 0.22 correspondingly. Since, water demand is relatively higher in Dhaka city and tariff is still very low
compared to other Asian cities, enough room is there to introduce demand sensitive and conservation pricing rule for the
rapidly growing population of the city.
In order to maintain the welfare of the people with different income level different kind of pricing strategy such as quota
pricing, peak, of-peak pricing, increasing block rate, cost recovery pricing can be adopted rather than any ad hoc pricing.
Since, Dhaka WASA follows ad-hoc pricing rule rather than appropriate price regulation; there is a good space for demand
management through a strategic and sustainable pricing mechanism for different user groups such as household, marginal
community (slum), industry etc. (Huq, 2014; Pardy, 2012; Solanes and Jouravlev, 2006).
iii. Reduce system loss
System loss is one of the key barriers for unremitting and optimal water supply in different cities around the world
(Takizawa, 2008). Higher system loss make the entire WDM system economically inefficient and questionable as well. Thus,
 Md. Arfanuzzaman, A. Atiq Rahman / Global Ecology and Conservation 10 (2017) 9–22 17

Fig. 7. Water tariff in different Asian cities.

Source: Delhi Jal Board (2015), Kathmandu Post (2014), Public Utilities Board (2012) for Singapore, FDC (2009) for Manila, Berg and Danilenko (2011) for
Kuala Lumpur, Syaukat (2009) for Jakarta.

Fig. 8. Trend of system loss of Dhaka WASA.

trimming down the system loss up to the mark is another prerequisite of economic sustainability. It is appeared in Fig. 8
that, In 1990 the overall system loss of Dhaka WASA was recorded 60% which was came down to 40% in 2004 and reached
41% in 2008 through gradual ups and down. Despite all the variation the overall system loss reduce to 26% in 2012. It is a
first-rate achievement of DWASA that it reduces system loss to 26% from 40% within last four years. Better management,
operational strategy and regulation plays a commendable role to ultimately ease the system loss from the superior level. The
initial reduction of system loss is less costly compared to the next stage. Up to certain level of system loss can be reduced
by increasing public awareness and enhanced monitoring and regulation. If DWASA want to reduce system loss further,
old mercenaries, equipments and pipelines are required to be replaced, which needs more investment and it will produce
higher economies of scale in the long run.

3.3.2. Social sustainability in WDM

It is a challenging task to maintain social sustainability in WDM in the highly populated cities, but better regulation and
strategy can ensure the social sustainability. If social sustainability is achieved in SWDM the welfare of the citizen will be
increased. In order to attain social sustainability, equity and water for all are essential to be made certain.
i. Equity in WDM
Equity is a vital element in the social sustainability of WDM. Without it SWDM cannot be achieved in the society.
Generally, acute equity problem occurs when poorest groups pay more per unit of water than other social groups. Acute
equity accelerated when partial coverage of potable water available in the urban areas. There is an enough room to work on
the equity issue of water consumption in Dhaka city. Lowest income group such as people of urban slums and other poor
18 Md. Arfanuzzaman, A. Atiq Rahman / Global Ecology and Conservation 10 (2017) 9–22

communities is not fully covered by Dhaka WASA and rich and poor people pay the similar price for water. Thus, in order to
achieve social sustainability emphasize must be given on equity by the water supplier authority and government as well.
ii. Water for all
Inadequate water access for drinking or for other purposes by certain groups of large numbers of people and in certain
parts of the country is becoming increasingly serious. Bangladesh needs stricter enforcement of the policies and water
related laws and more effective endeavors from both government and non-government actors in realizing the goal of
ensuring accessibility to quality water for all citizens which will ensure social sustainability of WDM as well. Otherwise
water crisis and water born diseases will be spread among the poor people. Rich people have the capability to install the
equipment to withdraw ground water for consumption but poor people cannot afford it and bound to go for unhealthy water
source. So, the water supplied by the Dhaka WASA should be safe for drinking and delivered to all. In this context, Dhaka
WASA can introduce water rationing for the poor and marginal communities, increase the pipeline coverage for the slums
and offer fresh water at a subsidized tariff to the poor. In Bangladesh the average annual per capita availability of water
is nearly 7500 cubic meters, around five times higher than that in India (FAO, 2014). Highly uneven seasonal and spatial
distribution of available water in Bangladesh poses severe problems. Dhaka WASA can utilize the surplus water resources
of monsoon and rivers water to increase its water supply capacity. Along with safe drinking water it is also need to ensure
that the people gets the minimum required water to lead their daily life, which is also a prerequisite for SWDM.

3.3.3. Environmental sustainability in WDM

In environmental sustainability of WDM water production, distribution and consumption must produce positive
environmental effects. Otherwise environmental sustainability will be intangible. In order to attain environmental
sustainability in WDM indicators related to the environment of Dhaka city need to be satisfied. The criteria of environmental
sustainability of WDM are discussed as follows.
i. Reduce groundwater depletion and pollution
Ground water groundwater depletion is one of the major problems of Dhaka city, which is growing each year and putting
severe risk to the ecology. In 1997 the groundwater level of Dhaka was 28.15 m below which further went down to 42 m
in 2002. Ultimately, in 2012 groundwater depletes more than 70 m from 61.8 m in 2007. The present condition does not
allow extracting water from the city’s ground. If water table continues to fall then a vacuum will be created in the aquifer
which could cause a sudden collapse in the surface (Rahman and Hossain, 2008). In this circumstance, to protect the soil
layer from massive collapse and manage groundwater resource, reliance should be transfer significantly from groundwater
to surface water (Siddique et al., 2000; Islam et al., 2010a,b). Fig. 9 points up that, the central part of capital city Dhaka
is in relatively critical environmental zone as groundwater level is went down up to 70 m and a considerable part of
surrounding areas are also in the risk of critical zone. The zones in between the range of 41–75 are in the risk of extreme
environmental degradation and future water scarce zone due to rapid groundwater exhaustion and these areas should be
declared as an ecologically critical areas and conservation policy must be taken regarding this concern. Thus, in order to
satisfy the criterion of environmental sustainability groundwater depletion must reduce right away from the risky areas
of Dhaka city though optimum hydrological planning and management including reducing groundwater extraction rate,
ensuring maximum groundwater recharge, surface water management, groundwater conservation and promote rainwater
harvesting.
A good number of rivers such as Turag, Balu, Sitalakhya, Buriganga and Dhaleswari are surrounding the Dhaka city which
is now highly contaminated for the disposal of waste, sewage, manufacturing effluent, and household pollutant matters.
Over 300 outfalls of domestic waste water, sewerage wastes, and industrial effluent are polluting the rivers every day and
diminishing the stock of surface water resource of the Dhaka city (Paul, 2009; Islam et al., 2010a,b; WB, 2007). Hence, water
pollution need to be controlled to maintain the sustainability as well as protect the precious water bodies and wetlands.

3.4. Instruments for achieving sustainable water demand management

i. Efficiency in water consumption

In order to achieve SWDM, sustainable consumption is also necessary to promote. Water consumption directs water
pollution and high volume of water extraction and consumption lead to reduce the reserve of groundwater level. Thus,
Environmental sustainability is also cannot be achieved without attaining sustainable consumption. Condenses pollution
form water consumption and reduced water footprint can foster the concept of sustainable water consumption in the
rapidly urbanized Dhaka city as well as other mega cities of the world. Here, promoting water efficient device such as rain
gauges, leak detection kit for toilets, bathroom flip aerators, dual setting flip aerator with swivel for the kitchen, low-flow
showerheads, shower timers, recycling technology, and improved water productivity can significantly reduce the household
and industrial water footprint. Furthermore, public information campaign, water education in school which includes field
trips, drinking water related lessons and activities, consultation on integrating drinking water topics, prepare educational
videos, books, and other resources on water saving and efficient water use will help to reduce water footprint. Besides,
rebates for replacement of inefficient toilets, shower and other household and industrial equipments, quarterly E-water
newsletter by DWASA containing different information and message, online information, alert high water user for their
 Md. Arfanuzzaman, A. Atiq Rahman / Global Ecology and Conservation 10 (2017) 9–22 19

Fig. 9. Ground water depletion in Dhaka in 2010. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web
version of this article.)

usages can inspire people to go for water smart device and technology as well as adopt sustainable consumption pattern in
the city life. However, promoting water-wise garden it also can be good idea in the Dhaka city. The water garden includes
drought-resistant plants, organic mulches, and water-wise design principles, which will create interest to the urban people
to make their living environment green with less water foot print. Besides, sustainable water consumption will also play a
considerable role for the water conservation.
ii. Promoting optimum water demand
SWDM seeks to influence water demand to reach the consumption levels that are equitable, efficient and sustainable. The
chief motto of sustainable water consumption (SWC) is to reduce water foot print and pollution from consumption. Pollution
can be reduced by public outreach program but what about water conservation? Water conservation is also possible to
attain by adopting the optimum water consumption pattern which is sustainable off course in terms quantity. According to
WHO, minimum of 50 l per capita and day (LPCD) is required to fulfill the needs for consumption and hygiene (Gleick and
Iwra, 1996). Here, 5 l per day (LPD) are required for drinking water, 10 LPD for food preparation, and 35 LPD for bathing
and sanitation services. For the highly populated cities 50 LPD is sustainable and also sufficient to ensure optimum water
consumption. This will be also helpful for reducing water foot print, ensure conservation and manage water demand in the
urban areas of the world.
Fig. 10 signifies the scenario of anticipated water demand in case of sustainable consumption. Here, 50 LPCD is considered
as a SWC level according to WHO minimum requirement. It emerges that if 50 LPCD can be consumed the water demand
reduces by more than 60% and if 100 LPCD can be consumed the water demand trim down by 40% in Dhaka city. It can be
observed that the water consumption is higher since the begging period. If SWC can be adopted earlier the water demand
may not reach at this peak position. In the present condition if water foot print can be reduced by promoting the sustainable
consumption groundwater depletion can be reduced significantly. Initially it may be challenging to achieve 50 LPCD but it
can be started from 100 LPCD then gradually it can be turned to 70 and then 50 LPCD. Since, our per capita water consumption
is increasing per year enough span is there to trim down the per capita water consumption by promoting SWC. In this way
SWDM can be achieved easily by promoting SWC which is 50 LPCD. Simultaneously, it is also need to be keep in mind that
50 LPD water is available to all.
iii. 100% metering
Full metering of water users is one of the most basic steps in a water conservation program at which different water
unit prices apply in an ascending rate structure. Alternatively, customers can be given a discount for meeting the goal,
or charged a penalty for exceeding it (as with wasteful use rates). The discount/penalty system can be used with any rate
structure, including a flat unit rate structure or even a flat fee structure, to make the cost of water more tuned to conservation
20 Md. Arfanuzzaman, A. Atiq Rahman / Global Ecology and Conservation 10 (2017) 9–22

Fig. 10. Water demand of Dhaka in case of sustainable consumption.

Source: Authors’ calculation based on the data of DWASA.

Cost of Cost with

extraction externality

Private cost

With extraction tax

No tax
demand

quantity

Fig. 11. Impact of tax on groundwater extraction.

goals. In Dhaka 75% connections are metered. Hence, to make the metered connections rate 100% Dhaka WASA need to work
effectively on it.
iv. Tax on private water withdrawal
For the sustainable water conservation ground water resource must be managed and extracted in a planned way. Along
with DWASA lots of private users and households withdraw limitless ground water which imposes adverse effect on ground
water depletion of Dhaka city. This is happened due to inability of DWASA to meet the water demand of city dwellers 24/7.
Besides, some area of Dhaka city those who are not covered by DWASA or does not have any water connection from DWASA
also depends on their own ground water withdrawal system. There is no any updated and exact statistics on how much
residents and firms withdraw how much ground water by their own equipment. In this case it is requisite to prepare area
wise list of these residents and firms to manage water conservation program by a sustainable regulation.
Water conservation can be managed by imposing tax on excessive private water withdrawal, quota pricing, volume based
pricing or metering. Without any tax or fee it is not possible to successfully administer the water conservation program
in a sustainable manner. The Fig. 11 demonstrates when there is no tax, water extraction increases significantly by the
residents or firms and vice versa in case of taxation. So, by imposing tax or additional fee private water withdrawal can be
reduced considerably and the people will tend to use water efficiently. Only imposing tax will not be an optimum solution
unless some alternative mechanism is developed. For example, govt. can take effective measures to promote the rainwater
harvesting system in the city areas and provide basic incentive on it. It deserve special mention that, above 15% of the total
water supply can be met by harvesting rainwater in Dhaka city as the city has around 370 km2 of land with a roof area of
75 km2 consists of more than 675,000 concrete houses (Islam et al., 2010a,b). Consequently, water conservation will also be
ensured in such way.
 Md. Arfanuzzaman, A. Atiq Rahman / Global Ecology and Conservation 10 (2017) 9–22 21

4. Conclusion and recommendation

In the present context, the ground water depletion, industrial and household water footprint need to be reduced for the
best possible water management of the Dhaka city. Sustainable water demand management (SWDM) can be an optimum
choice for conserving and managing water resources. SWDM is integrated approach and its criteria are feasible to attain
for the mega cities including Dhaka through proper planning, management and investment. Integrated policy, co-operation
among the utility services provider and public reinforcement can help to adopt the SWDM quickly. Water efficient device
and technology may be costly. In this case incentive should be provided to the local firm to produce this type of devices
and import of water smart technology can be made duty free. Implementation of water smart device and technology can be
made mandatory for the high volume user and the commercial sectors. Besides, surface water resource should be developed
as a reliable source of water supply along with the groundwater resource. Because a remarkable part of Dhaka city under
severe risk due to massive groundwater depletion. In addition the sources of SW such as water bodies and rivers need to
be protected by ensuring better waste management and ETP for the industries. Moreover, endeavor should be made on
sustainable water consumption. The ultimate SWC target is 50 LPCD but initial goal can be 100 LPCD against the existing
demand per capita. SWC can considerably trim down the water foot print as well as water demand of the Dhaka city. Govt. can
promote rain water harvesting with incentive system specially in the critical areas to conserve the water resource. Rooftop
rainwater harvesting systems are already compulsory for the newly constructed buildings in the 18 states of neighboring
country India. The Karnataka state government of India has proposed giving a 5%–10% cut on water bills for users that
install water harvesting systems. In 2010, Delhi government was also directed all its departments, local bodies and public
sector organizations to install rainwater harvesting systems in their buildings. Although, Bangladesh’s capital development
authority, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK), made rainwater harvesting for new houses mandatory in an effort to
address water scarcity and reduce flooding, is note seen very ineffective. Similar rain water harvesting model can be followed
in Dhaka city to reduce the pressure from groundwater resource. Since, a huge number of city dweller and commercial farms
involve on limitless groundwater extraction, tax should be imposed shortly to restrict limitless the private water withdrawal.
This will help to reduce groundwater depletion and also reduce the needless water consumption. Water mining should be
discontinued by DWASA from the red zones of Dhaka city, where groundwater level goes down more than 50 m from the
MSL until groundwater recharge take place in these areas up to the standard level. Or else, sudden collapse of soil layer may
emerge in these ecologically critical red zones. The rapidly urbanized and highly populated cities, where water demand is
high, SWDM is an optimum option for them, which deserve immediate deliberation on the policy making process. According
to the Far Eastern Economic Review, a good number of mega Asian cities such as Dhaka will be home to 25 million, Jakarta
24.9 million, Karachi 26.5 million, Shanghai 27 million and Mumbai 33 million people by the end of 2025. If we cannot
establish a SWDM approach from now on the water management will be a very difficult task for the growing population in
the years to come. To implement SWDM a reform in the existing structure, perspective water and environmental planning
and management, and healthy investment are required. Here, a noticeable part of investment can be generated through
executing pollution tax and payment for ecosystem services. Besides, proper budget allocation, capacity building, intuitional
efficiency, good water governance, public awareness and enforcing environmental law and policies are highly essential to
initiate and well execute the overall approach of SWDM and attain the social–ecological resilience. Otherwise, SWDM may
not run properly and efficiently.

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to Dhaka WASA for providing necessary data and information to carry out the study. Authors
are also grateful to Prof. Dr. ATM Zahural Huq, former chair of Dhaka WASA for proving ideas and inspiration to prepare
this paper. The writers are indebted to many of our colleagues for discussions and ideas that are reflected throughout this
paper. We are also indebted to the journal’s editor, and anonymous referees for critical and helpful comments that have
much improved the paper.

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