Four people employed by a contactor wash several hundred pieces of hospital bed sheets, mops, gowns, towels, mosquito nets every day, most times in the dirty river water as the Wasa supplied taps run dry. The hospital is also devoid of an in-house laundry facility that prompted the hospital authority employ a private contractor to do the job.

Rahman, who had been washing clothes of Mitford Hospital for the last 25 years, said that water crisis is one of the big problems they face while washing clothes.

"Very often when we do not have supply of Wasa tap water we have to wash those in the river. But the drapers used in Operation Theatre are washed again in a separate place and then sterilised. Badly stained and soiled sheets are washed in the middle of the river," he said.

"We feel bad washing these clothes in the river but what can we do? Yesterday [Sunday] we did not have water all day," said Rahman.

The workers said that they faced further problem as the hospital has no fixed 'house' to wash clothes.

"PG and Dhaka Medical have their separate places to wash clothes but in Mitford we do not have a separate place to wash them. We have to resort to the river when we do not have tap water but if we had a separate reservoir we would not have to go to the river," said Babu, another worker.

"Especially during the four months of lean period when water level decreases the pollution is at its worst. Sometimes the sluice gates are opened after an interval of a few days bringing in more polluted water. We are left with no alternative other than using that contaminated water. Sometimes we buy water at Tk 5 per pitcher to wash. We desperately need the reservoir," said Rahman. On an average around 500 pieces of clothesare washed at the hospital every day.