WASA Chittagong semi-autonomous corporation engaged in water supply and drainage system in the port city of chittagong. In terms of administration it is under the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development. On 16 October 1963, the government promulgated the Water Supply and Sewerage Ordinance 1963 and on 7 November that year, the Chittagong Water Supply and Sewerage Authority was founded. The organisation started working with a project aiming at water supply covering wide areas of the port city. The work was completed in 1969. Consequently, it was possible to supply 15 million gallons of water in the city, and distant places such as Kalurghat in the east, Halishahar in the west, Fauzdarhat in the north, and Patenga in the south came within the reach of water supply system. Later, as the city area grew larger, population increased, water-based industries came into being, and marketing area of various commodities extended.

Chittagong WASA started implementation of the second water project in 1981 and it was completed in 1988. In this second project Chittagong WASA acquired the capacity of lifting 40 million gallons of water daily by digging 5 deep tubewells. To ensure a balanced system of water supply in the city, Chittagong WASA undertook the work of sinking 25 tubewells and installing 110mm pipeline under the interim Water Supply Rehabilitation Project. As a result, WASA's water production capacity increased further by 8 million gallons.

Before the introduction of water supply system, the inhabitants of Chittagong city area were dependent on water from such natural springs as the Badar Jharna, Shital Jharna, Sonali Jharna, Moti Jharna, and Machhua Jharna and others. The Chittagong District Gazetteer published in 1908 mentions that 2.2% of the Chittagong Municipality's total income in the year 1905-06 came from the water supply sector. In 1915, a deep tubewell was sunk near the Lieutenant Governor's house with financial help from the government, and supply of water from that tubewell started in 1916. At that time water supply was not extended to the whole city area. But the Dampara Water Works that operated under the Municipality bore the responsibility of limited water supply programme. After World War II, along with increase of population in Chittagong city, urgency was felt for increased water supply and new extension of pipeline. However, planned efforts and programme for solving the problem of water supply commenced much later.

The second interim Water Supply Rehabilitation Project ensured lifting of 8.50 million gallons of water by sinking 23 tubewells, installing 75mm pipeline, and procuring pertinent modern machine parts. At the end of the implementation of this project the quantity of water lifting had significantly increased. With the aim of reducing the size of system loss the Unaccounted Water Management Study was undertaken on 25 May 1993. Its cost was estimated at Tk 34.662 million. It was completed in 1995.

At present, one of the sources of WASA's water is the karnafuli river at 800 metre upstream. After acquiring, the water is passed through a process of purification in Mohra Purification Project and then supplied in the city. The second source is the 20 deep tubewells in the Kalurghat area and 12 such tubewells in the city area. About 400,000 families in Chittagong city get water from house connection. Another 200,000 people use water from roadside taps. However, a large portion of Chittagong city's population still face severe water problem. [Sadat Ullah Khan]