Faults in the overall project work due to alleged corruption by the implementing agency were revealed during an investigation by The Daily Star.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) that financed the project withheld further allocation of funds when faults were detected after Tk 14 crore was spent, sources said.

No body knows when the project will be commissioned to supply pure water to the townspeople.

The Tk 20 crore Rangpur pourasava water supply project was part of ADB's Ten Town Development Programme.

As the Rangpur pourasava lacked the required logistics, the Department of Public Health and Engineering (DPHE) was given the responsibility to implement the project.

It included construction of three overhead tanks and one water treatment plant, sinking of six deep tube wells and eight shallow tube wells and laying of 165-km PVC pipeline in the town.

The purpose of the project was to supply pure water to about four lakh town dwellers.

The project work began in 1997.

Construction of three overhead tanks, laying of 165-km PVC pipeline and sinking of six deep tube wells were shown completed in 2002.

A total of Tk 14 crore was spent.

But serous faults were detected in three overhead tanks and the water treatment plant soon after construction.

Water leaked from the overhead tank in Dhap area and the two other talks in the town during trial operation in April 2002 and it was stopped as local people feared that it could collapse.

Six cases were lodged with the District Anti Corruption Bureau against the Chairman of Rangpur Pourasava in this connection, the sources said.

When contacted, Executive Engineer of Rangpur Porasava said DPHE was yet to hand over the project to them. So the pourasava could not operate the overhead tanks, he claimed.

The Rangpur DPHE Executive Engineer said one of the transformers at the Dhap overhead tank became inoperative and so they could not hand over the project to the pourasava.

But Abdus Saber, a resident of Mulatol area ridiculed this.

"Who will believe that a Tk 21 core project is inoperative because a transformer is being repaired for two years?" he questioned.

An official at PHED seeking unanimity however made an alarming disclosure.

PVC pipe was used in only 16 kms of the pipeline and old asbestos pipes were used in the rest 149 km network. The old asbestos pipe can not bear pressure of water flowing from overhead tanks.

As a result, there has been leaks at about fifty points in the pipeline network, he claimed.

Moreover, use of asbestos pipe for water supply in municipal areas is prohibited as it can retain germs of Hepatitis and dysentery for long.

ADB stopped further finance after it learnt about the glaring irregularities, the sources said.

When contacted, the DPHE Executive Engineer denied the allegations.

"We have repaired the overhead talks and the leaks in the pipeline network", Fazlul Haq said when contacted yesterday. but he could not say when the installations will be handed over to the pourasabha.